Malcolm's Page

Plans for 2012

2012-01-14T23:45:00.002Z

Here are the plans for 2012...

New capital cities
Ankara
Bangkok
Belfast
Canberra
Jakarta
Kuwait City
Reykjavik
Singapore

New theme parks

Universal Studios Singapore, Singapore
Escape Theme Park, Singapore
Taman Safari Indonesia, Indonesia
Jawa Timur Park, Indonesia
Batu Nights Spectacular, Indonesia
Wisata Bahari Lamongan, Indonesia
Taman Remaja, Indonesia
Time Zone, Indonesia
Puriland, Indonesia
Taman Safari Indonesia, Indonesia
Kota Fantasi, Indonesia
Trans Studio Indoor Theme Park, Indonesia
Bandung Carnival Land, Indonesia
Dunia Fantasi, Indonesia
Moiland, Indonesia
Danga Bay, Malaysia
Adventure World, Australia
King Carnival, Australia
Luna Park Melbourne, Australia
Wonderland Fun Park, Australia
Merimbula Magic Mountain, Australia
Luna Park Sydney, Australia
Adventureland, Australia
Sea World, Australia
Wet 'n Wild Water World, Australia
Warner Brothers Movie World, Australia
Dreamworld, Australia
Aussie World, Australia
Rainbow's End, New Zealand
Crystal Mountain Theme Park, New Zealand
Dream World, Thailand
Wonder World Extreme Park, Thailand
Siam Park City, Thailand
Yoyo Land, Thailand
Dusit Zoo, Thailand
Pattaya Park Funny Land, Thailand
Leoland, Thailand
Gulliver's Milton Keynes, England
Al-Sha'ab Leisure Park, Kuwait
Cartoon Network World, Kuwait
Entertainment City, Kuwait
Future Kid, Kuwait
Hawalli Park, Kuwait
Infunity Zone, Kuwait
Lagoons, Kuwait
Marah Land Sabahiya, Kuwait
Mishref Luna Park, Kuwait
Selayel Fun Land, Kuwait
Ankamall, Turkey
Kecioren Luna Park, Turkey
Basak Park, Turkey
50 Year Park, Turkey
Genclik Parki, Turkey
Cepa Mall, Turkey
Demetevler Luna Park, Turkey
Goksu Park, Turkey
Luna Park, Turkey
Levent Luna Park, Turkey
BüyükÇekmece, Turkey
Avcilar Sahil Luna Park, Turkey
Yucespor Luna Park, Turkey
Bagcilar Luna Park, Turkey
Bayrampasa City Park, Turkey
Ayvansaray Luna Park, Turkey
Kucuk Ciftlik Park, Turkey
Cevahir Mall, Turkey
Bostanci Luna Park, Turkey
Seaworld San Diego, USA
Castle Amusement Park, USA
Lagoon, USA

New Coasters
If everything goes to plan I should have 140 new coasters by the year's out.

2011 Year in Review

2012-01-14T23:30:00.004Z

So how did I do?

This is what I had planned. I've crossed off the ones I achieved.

Capital Cities
~~Cape Town~~
~~Lisbon~~
Belfast
Ankara

New Parks
~~Ratanga Junction, South Africa~~
V&A Waterfront, South Africa (the coaster had been replaced with a wheel)
~~Magic Company, South Africa~~
~~Gold Reef City, South Africa~~
Pretoria West Showgrounds, South Africa (travelling) (wasn't open when we were there)
Chariots Entertainment Centre, South Africa (no longer has the indoor theme park)
~~Kolmarden Djurpark, Sweden~~
~~Skara Sommarland, Sweden~~
~~Funcenter, Portugal~~
~~Isla Magica, Spain~~
~~Seville Fair, Spain~~
~~Bayern Park, Germany~~
~~Freizeit-Land Geiselwind, Germany~~
~~Schloss Thurn, Germany~~
~~Freizeitpark Plohn, Germany~~
~~Belantis, Germany~~
~~Erlebniswelt Seilbahnen Thale, Germany~~
~~Potts Park, Germany~~
~~Schloss Beck Freizeitpark, Germany~~
~~Dusseldorf Fair, Germany (travelling)~~
Nurburgring, Germany (never opened it's ride)
~~Walygator Parc, France~~
~~Schwaben Park, Germany~~
Genclik Parki, Turkey (Turkey never happened)
Kecioren Park, Turkey
Basak Park, Turkey
Luna Park, Turkey
Goksu Park, Turkey
Demetevler Parki, Turkey
Ada Park, Turkey
Cevahir Mall, Turkey
Kucuk Ciftlik Park, Turkey
Bostanci Luna Park, Turkey

Coasters
Will be approximately 121

As it happens I managed to squeeze in the following new parks

Hempshill Lane Recreation Ground, UK
Southglade Park, England
Dudley Zoo, England
Hook Lane Arena, England (travelling)
Eastcote Fair, England (travelling)
Barry Island Pleasure Park, Wales
Coney Beach Pleasure Park, Wales
Hampstead Heath Lower Easter Fair, England (travelling)
Wanstead Flats Easter Fair, England (travelling)
Clarence Pier, England
Southsea Fairgrounds, England (travelling)
Rose Hill Fair, England (travelling)
Skara Sommerland, Sweden
Aspedalen Tivoli, Sweden (travelling)
Pleasurewood Hills, England
Mack's Amusements, England
Pleasure Island Family Theme Park, England
Rainbow Magicland, Italy
Oasi Park, Italy
The Hoppings, England (travelling)
Luebeck Lunapark, Germany (travelling)
Erse Park, Germany
Serengeti Park, Germany
Didiland, France
Silkeborn Regatta, Denmark (travelling)
Faarup Sommerland, Denmark
Djurs Sommerland, Denmark
Tivoli Friheden, Denmark
Hamburg Sommerdom, Germany (travelling)
Tolk Schau, Germany
Sommerland Syd, Denmark
Rømø Lege- & Hesteland, Denmark
Legoland Billund, Denmark
Pavilion Fun Park, England
Legoland Windsor, England
Nottingham Goose Fair, England (travelling)
Hull Fair, England (travelling)
Gullivers Warrington, England
Wallis's Family Fun Fair, England
Barnard Park Fair, England (travelling)
Winter Wonderland '11, England (travelling)

and I ended riding 152 new coasters, which is stupid

European Coaster Trip

2012-01-14T22:20:00.000Z

In the summer of 2011 I did another trip with the European Coaster Club, and after 6 months of writers block have finally got the report together. It's over on the left with the other trip links or here if you're not getting this off my website directly.

DJ Cheeba

2011-12-03T19:46:00.001Z

Absolutely loving this guys work. Have seen him live twice now, the last time was similar to this set below.

DJ Cheeba: Live from Solid Steel on Vimeo.

Smash TV

2011-11-04T19:26:00.001Z

Skinemax from Smash TV on Vimeo.

Sweden Tour

2011-06-08T00:01:00.002+01:00

Continuing my week of theme park visiting I spent a few days visiting Sweden with the European Coaster Club taking in 4 parks; the city parks of Gothenburg and Stockholm and two located between them. This report is a write up of that.

Liseberg

This park is located in the centre of Gothenburg and is an amazing city park with attractions and entertainment to keep all generations and coaster riders happy.

Rabalder is a recent addition to the park replacing a childrens coaster with one that's a little bit bigger and a little more fun to ride. Being the smallest coaster in the park we got it out of the way and the park had very kindly given us the opportunity to ride this before opening the public as a general introduction to the welcome.

Lisebergbahn is a large terrain coaster situated on the hill within the park. This ride is approaching 25 years of age, usually a sign that it's going to be rough. However the park has maintained the ride superbly and it still runs extremely well. We got to ride this for a full hour and choosing a seat in the middle meant that I didn't have to leave my seat (there's a lot of interest from others in riding in the front and back)

If a worst coaster had to be chosen from those in the park then unfortunately it would be Kanonen. It's an amazing use of space compressing a lot of track into a small footprint, but with that comes some pretty violent transitions and a stupidly slow inline twist that serves to provide bruised shoulders as a souvenir to those who ride it.

A year or so ago the park the replaced an observation tower with a stupidly high drop ride. Called "Atmos Fear" this ride was providing mixed responses with some deeming it too slow and braking too soon and others saying it was great. Watching the reactions of those riding gave the impression of the latter and perhaps I was fortunate but every time I rode it we dropped very quickly indeed and the ride was great!

The final ride of the day was on their exemplary coaster Balder. I've had mixed experiences on this with some new wheels causing the ride to crawl on the last trip in 2007. Those wheels had now bedded in and the ride had returned back to it's former glory. Despite a slight degradation of smoothness on some of the turns the ride is just as good as when I first rode it eight years ago with ridiculous airtime on every hill.

Our itinerary had us returning to Liseberg in a few days time and as I'd been here before it was a very relaxed day for me, especially given the travelling I'd been subjecting myself in the days leading up to the trip. So more on Liseberg later.

Kolmårdens Djurpark

This is a fairly new park for the coaster hunters as they only added one in 2009. The park is a huge animal and safari park that takes quite some time to cover and in places is pretty steep too. So bring a good pair of walking shoes.

Safari Parks are notorious for becoming nothing more than a traffic jam surrounded by animals where drivers run the risk of getting perhaps a little too close to the animals than liked. This park took the novel of idea of leaving the cars in the car park and using a cable car system to take you around the animals instead. The upshot is a lot more stress-free for all. The car at it's lowest point is just 2 metres above the ground and that's in the lion enclosure getting you very close to the animals indeed. However like in Hollywood where you should never work with animals you still run the risk of them not playing ball and on our ride the lions were seeking refuge away from the cable car route.

Away from the safari park there are a large number of spacious enclosures for the animals to wander and bask in the sun. I'm usually not a fan of seeing animals in any sort of captivity but they all seemed very content here however there was one snow leopard doing the pacing back-and-forth thing, which is usually a sign that something isn't right but that was the exception.

The roller coaster is called Delfinexpressen and is a rollerskater ride that was good for a couple of goes but not much else. It looks like the park has been testing the waters with some rides and if rumours are to be believed will be getting some more including which could put it on the map in the same way Balder did for Liseberg.

For those wishing to escape into the shade then the dolphin show was the best place. I'd never been in a fully indoor show before and credit to this park for putting together an excellent show with the obligatory dolphin tricks and a couple of new ones all put together with some great production.

Gronalund
This is the city park of Stockholm and is quite simply one of the best parks in the world. With a decent selection of rides, all run extremely well and very friendly park staff and locals I love visiting this park. Following a welcome from the park we were let loose for an afternoon and evening of coaster riding.

First up was the new kiddy coaster which can be found just inside the main entrance. Called Tuff Tuff Taget this was just a simple series of hairpins that brought you back into the station. Fortunately we were only sent around for two laps so the embarrassment factor was kept low.

Insane is a Zacspin coaster which for those who don't know is one where you move on a single plane but the cars are free to rotate forwards and backwards (and over and over) as they negotiate the twisting course. I'd ridden one of these before in Finland but that was the smallest model in the range. This was the next size up and completely lived up to its name with proper physical forces not helped by our car choosing to do a lot of the circuit upside down.

Blu Taget (Blue Train) is the park's signature dark ride and had been rebuilt and moved slightly to make way for another ride. In reconstructing the ride the park had taken the opportunity to bring it up to date with a new track and a high-tech car with effects built within it. This was a lot of fun and a step-change in the enjoyment offered compared to it's earlier incarnation, which was still great.

Vilda Musen and Jetline are two rollercoasters that are entwined within each other in an amazing display of making the most of your land. Vilda Musen was not too bad, the queue line was cramped but processed very quickly but the Jetline was excellent and the ride we spent most of the evening riding. This part of the park had been given a new 50's theme which looked amazing.

Once the park was closed and the masses out of the way we were allowed to ride Twister, the park's new wooden coaster for an hour, ending at midnight. This coaster lives up to its name and is an amazing feat of construction worthy of getting it's own documentary on the Discovery Channel. However I didn't like the ride much at all. In trying to squeeze so much in the pacing of the ride was all over the place and bar the final section lost me, this wasn't helped by us riding it in the dark. The new trains were also a little high on the sides which caused my spine and shoulders a little discomfort. Despite my negativity the ride was extremely popular and liked by everyone else and earlier in the day had been an absolutely huge draw to the public. Another slight disappointment is that unless you're prepared to exploit the parks good nature and sneak a camera onto some of the other rides, the coaster isn't easy to photograph.

The following morning we were given a tour around the park before being given a number of rides to play on for an hour. The Zacspin was put to the test by intentionally running the car with unbalanced cars. Doing this ensured more violent g-forces and flips than you'd get usually. It was funny seeing the park staff and engineers walking past the session looking up and shaking their heads in disbelief.

The big draw however was Jetline which like Lisebergbahn was the older ride but still showing the newer ones how to do things, running incredibly well. Even at the start of the day when coasters are slow this was still flying around the track.

Today was proving to be a bit busier than the day before and as queues were quick to build up. Taking advantage of already being in the park we got first rides on Twister. In the daytime where the track could be read the ride was a more bearable than in the pitch black darkness of the night before.

With the time remaining we took the opportunity to just relax and enjoy the ambience of the park at what turned out to be the busiest day for the year, by quite some margin. Estimates were in the region of 25,000 people. It should be noted that the park was still able to move people through the rides efficiently even with the numbers. Other parks could learn so much from seeing the operations in this park.

Skara Sommarland

Heading back to Liseberg we stopped off at Skara Sommarland, a park which up to 2 years ago offered very little until that was they added the prototype of the Free Fly coaster, which they've called Tranan.

This coaster is a suspended coaster where the car can rotate and turn upside down but the seats don't invert because they're hung out to the sides rather than being above or below the track. The seats are quite exposed and the single belt restraint leaving the riding to be a little precarious, and genuinely fun as a result. I've major doubts whether parks in the UK or US would allow the ride to exist in such a way, and I guess this is why there aren't many parks rushing to buy what is a great ride. Overheads would kill this ride, it's not named Free Fly for nothing. It's also worth noting that there are 2 distinct ride experiences given by this ride depending on the side you ride on. One seemed more gentler than the other.

As well as Tranan the park has 2 other rollercoasters. Gruvbanan is a lengthy powered mine train, the kind of which is commonplace throughout the world.

The other was a very recent addition being opened to the public just 2 days before we got there. This ride called Spinner used to exist at Centr0 Park in Germany prior to it being closed. One of the club members had been helping getting the ride ready for us. Thank you Matts for getting it done on time :)

As well as the ride, the park is home to a huge waterpark and given the temperatures today had attracted a decent crowd. This was a pretty neat water park with a bowl shaped landscape giving perfect terrain onto which to build the slides, keeping them low to the ground and therefore costs down.

The rest of the day was spent dicking about in the park enjoying the rides and spending a good amount of time watching people failing miserably to water ski. We also went back and rode Tranan a lot more, much to the ride ops surprise. They really do have a winner here!

I liked Skara Sommarland, it offered us a perfect break from the hectic pace of the preceding days and as with all the other parks on the trip allowed people to have fun and didn't bog them down with silly rules and protocols.

Back to Liseberg
We returned to Liseberg for a day and a half for three reasons. Firstly to enjoy the park for one more time, secondly for an exclusive ride session on Kanonen and also to finish the trip with a midnight ride session on Balder. So not wanting to repeat myself here's some random pictures of the park.

The Kanonen session on paper sounded like being a real nightmare. I don't think the ride has many fans especially given the great wooden coaster next door and the idea of riding non-stop for an hour would have been a physical test most of us would have walked away from, which isn't nice for the park. As it turns out it ended up being a lot of fun on account of us requesting being given deliberate rollbacks where we were launched too slow to make it over the first hill and the park staff being more than willing to oblige. It also gave them an opportunity to test their rollback processes on an audience that isn't going to panic or get distressed, in fact we were the complete opposite, with one of the loudest cheers going up when it happened.

As for the Balder session, I didn't take any photos as I was too busy having what has to be one of the funniest ride sessions ever. Again riding in the middle I was able to remain in my seat for the duration of the 75 minutes we were given. I was on the first train and on the last and managed, we think, 20 rides on the coaster. Everyone was cheering and laughing so hard at how manic this ride is at night that I lost my voice, much to the amusement of others. But it was all for a good cause. It didn't matter how tired or exhausted we may have been or how damaged from the heat some of us were but we all came off that ride laughing and with memories that we'll carry for a long long time.

Aspedalen Fair

A bonus for a small number of us on the trip. On the drive back to Liseberg we spotted a small fair set up beside the road and with a bit of spare time on the last day and someone willing to drive us back (Thankyou Mette), we found ourselves at a small fair run by a Norwegian company who'd crossed over the border.

In amongst the rides was a small powered coaster. Yay! Credit-whoring at it's best!

I knew what I was going to be getting in Sweden. Amazingly run parks, amazingly friendly people, expensive drinks, great food, some superb rollercoasters, and that's what I got. Along with some great company providing laughs along the way this little trip has probably upped the ante that other trips are going to have a tough job beating.

Thanks to all those who helped make the trip happen. You know who you are!

Rainbow Magicland

2011-05-31T22:01:00.000+01:00

This is just a quick report and selection of photos. To see the rest of the images click here.

I had a spare couple of days prior to heading out to Sweden (oh, hark at this globetrotter) so I decided to head out to Rainbow Magicland, a new park located in the small town of Valmonte, approximately 30km east of Rome, which opened this month. The park is getting a lot of attention due to the quality of theming, which is pretty top notch from the entrance right through the park.

The park's signature attraction is a large Maurer-Sohne launched rollercoaster called Shock. Located just next to the end of main street and running out over the central lake, the steam-punk themed ride looks to be a great choice for the park indeed. Although not carrying passengers on the day I was there the ride was being tested throughout which elicited very positive reactions from the public watching it, despite not being able to ride.

The park currently has two water rides and both are encountered if you head clockwise from the entrance. Drakkar is the rapids ride, themed around a viking journey and with some nice theming along it's course and a couple of sections that did get passengers pretty wet which is the perfect counter to the melting heat. Yucatan is the Big Splash attraction which had stunning Aztec style theming and a huge slighlty animatronic demon that spat water on the boats travelling underneath. The latter ride unfortunately was not open today.

Next to Yucatan is one of the most photogenic pieces of theming that the park has to offer. The minotaurs take on Abu Simbel building houses an indoor dark ride called Huntik. Alas I know nothing of the ride as looking through the doors I could see the finishing touches still being applied to the queue line within it. The building however is huge, which bodes well...as long as it's not just a queue line inside it :) In the rides absence the externals became a backdrop to photos as visitors clambered aboard the giant lizards and had their photo taken on them.

The park has a show theatre next door which can hold a sizeable crowd and on the day I was there featured two circus style shows. For those interested in stage lighting, and I know of at least two friends who are, the show is primarily LED based adding a very rich level of colour to what was an average show. Be warned that if you're in the front row and the clown is doing a routine that has him and a member of the audience spitting water, you are likely to get spat at...in the face. Amusing, unless you're the recipient.

The second biggest coaster and the one pulling the crowds because it was running was a spinning coaster called Cagliostro. The theming on the building for this ride is stunning and as a fan of MC Escher I'm surprised his style of mind-boggling structural designs hasn't been used before. The external theming was triggering a lot of debate about how good the internal theming was going to be; well perhaps disappointingly there isn't any. It's an enclosed ride completely in the dark. Given the theme of confusion and bewidlerment that comes from being in a world where up cannot be determined from down perhaps this was all they could have done. For the people who want to see what the ride is like, one turn takes place outside the building. The ride also suffers from including what I believe to be the most anti-climatic element in its design, that being a lift hill at the end. Having said that the ride was being run very well and what appeared to be a daunting queue line was actually eaten up quite quickly. The queue line for this runs outside the building and for those who may be worried that the queue continues inside needn't. The station is right inside the entrance, that was a nice relief when queueing.

Coaster numero trio sits opposite the Cagliostro building and features a flying ship travelling in and around a small volcano. Called L'Olandese Volante (The Flying Dutchman) this appears to be a cookie-cut Vekoma layout, the one with twin lift hills. The ride itself was fine, perhaps the wheels need a little more time to bed in as there was a slight vibration throughout much of the first half. But as a family coaster this was running two trains all day and a decent contingent of people, old and new on each, so clearly the right coaster for the park.

At the top-end of the park is the Planetarium which is actually the 4D cinema. This showed a film I'd not seen before, but I'm not sure it's unique to the park. It features a couple of turtles having to deal with man-made disasters (oil spill, deforestation, ice caps melting etc). I'm not sure the eco-conscious message was reaching the audience however; most of them seemed happy trying to squish the 3D fish between their hands.

In the back corner of the park is a whole area dedicated to younger children. In here there are two more coasters here for the credit hunters. Both are bog-standard models but feature unique train theming. The first one is called Amerigo, this is the caterpillar ride. The second is a rollerskater with a rather demonic looking front train called Bomborun. Special mention should be made of the Rocking Tug ride in this part of the park which has a great looking spider theming and has the Rita-esque name of Ronnie. In fact the theming in this part of the park was really impressive, all of the rides looked unique. The only exception being a childrens rapid ride tucked away at the back. For those who're worried that a childrens area means childrens only you'll be pleased to hear that there was no problem getting onto either coaster. However if big wheels are more your thing, getting into the little one at this park is going to be a bit of a challenge.

A large building on the south side of the park contains an inverted dark ride called Believix. This ride takes you on a flying journey through a number of worlds where the fairies live. Great for the little kids, not so much for the adults as the fairies here are just animatronics and not hot Italian women in costume.

In the south-west corner of the park is a flying island ride, which gives a great view of the park. With the tower ride still being constructed and the Shock coaster not running this was the only opportunity to look down on the park. One nice touch was that the car park was covered by solar panels, keeping the cars cool and generating some power too. It was also a surprise to see new construction projects already underway in two places around the park. The next wave of investment perhaps? (there's a clue there)

In my report on Ferrari World I made a comment that the park had been poorly attended and I believe a complacency in the brand being enough to bring the public to the park as being at fault. Well the marketing people behind Rainbow Magicland should be applauded for the promotional work that they've been doing. In and around Rome I saw billboards and posters advertising the park. Deals have been struck with local hotels and the sightseeing buses to include the park in package deals. Also the public in Rome knew about the park and if when it came up in conversation every local I spoke to knew of the park and more importantly had plans to visit. This has to be seen as a very promising sign that the park owners got their strategy right. The attendance in the park wasn't vast but given that the park was in its first week of opening, and I was visiting on a Monday just before their national holiday, perhaps this wasn't a surprise.

A few little tips for the park.

1. Bring a hat. It's hot and it's open.

2. The toilets are mostly, but not completely, of the squat variety. So get working those leg muscles and your aim.

3. The urinals are higher up than usual, so work on your aim whilst being on your tip-toes.

4. If you need to leave a bag somewhere there aren't any lockers but the information room on the right as you enter will kindly look after it for you for 3 euros. You will need to leave some form of ID behind so bring your passport with you and be prepared to hand it over.

5. If you are going to leave your bag, don't ignore point 1 and choose to leave your hat in it.

6. The queue lines use a counting system that for the most part self-regulates the queue line and ensures rides and attractions are filled up. Don't enter if the sign says ALT, that means HALT, the H being silent. The numbering can be messed up by parents carrying kids through the turnstiles.

7. If you want a good ride on the spinning ride try not to complete a group of 4, but be prepared to be disappointed when randoms fill your car instead.

8. The cheapest way of getting to the park is the free bus from the centre of Rome. Details can be found at www.escursioniroma.it. The dearest way is private limo which can cost around 130 euros from Fiumcino airport or the centre of Rome.

Here are some videos of Shock testing.

Seville

2011-05-14T00:07:00.001+01:00

With the Lisbon out of the way it was then time to visit Seville. This should have been a half hour flight but availability is low and I had to fly via Barcelona where I was delayed for four hours. So arriving quite late I chose to just hit the hotel for preparation a long day sightseeing the next day.

This was my base for Seville, the Hotel Derby. There's a shortage of chain hotels here so I ventured for a local one-off. It's located in the centre of town and is perfectly located in the centre of the city.

An early start to the day and I was already liking the architecture. The smaller building is a great cake shop and due to it being just around the corner from the hotel was visited by this person on more than one occasion.

Cute graff.

A rather nice church which unfortunately gave me an Assassins Creed "I could climb that" flashback.

This was stunning and a complete fluke to find as it's not currently visible on imagery within Google Earth. Called the Seville Parasol it's actually nothing more than an observation platform overlooking the city.

From where you can get a nice view of the rest of the structure, which looks like it's made a wood but it's all steel.

The more touristy views however offer this one of the cathedral to the south.

and a view out towards the most recent Expo site to the North. You can just make out the theme park Isla Magica in the background, which is where I was going to head (it's not actually that far). The platform is 2 euros to the tourists and free to the locals. Somehow I got in for free so perhaps my Spanish was too convincing.

Beneath the parasol is a preserved ruin site. Great if you're a fan of mosaics.

The castle again and a lovely bright day to hopefully make the photos a little better.

The city is littered with churches, this one was buried somewhere in the back streets. I was staying in the centre of the old town, where the streets are narrow and the taxi rides through them quite claustraphobic.

This nice stencil montage was on the shutter for a video rental place.

The city has a bike hire scheme similar to the one recently opened in London. I toyed with the idea of using this to get about but decided I would be happier walking around until my legs seized up, like I usually do.

Some more video shop shutter art.

This is the Alameda, the oldest public garden in Europe built in 1574 and a meeting point for the locals, just not at this hour. The van isn't as old and those bins are actually elevators to bigger bins underground. I know this as the taxi was stuck behind a bin van that took 15 minutes to get from one end to the other emptying them all.

More shutter work. The writing over the top is actually deliberate, but it spoils the pic.

CHiPs, Andalucian style.

This bridge is the Puenta de la Barqueta, which was built for to get people to the Expo site across the river. The Isla Magica Park is right across it and I could have got there pretty quickly. But I got distracted...

By a load of art along the river bank.

Also along the riverbanks, a fishing contest was taking place. I didn't see anything of any noticeable size being caught. In the background is the drop tower at the park

This one had a slight Francis Bacon vibe to it. I do find myself drawn to art that paints with lights on dark.

The next bridge upstream is the Puenta del Alamillo, a large single span bridge. It's quite amusing that the single support has become home to a local competition to see who can get their name the highest.

Onto Isla Magica then. This park was built in the late 90's and is the only theme park in the city. It's like a mini Island of Adventure with themed areas around a central lake.

You enter the park in the Pirate part.

The drop tower runs a pretty good bounce program and the disk-o recently added to the park was OK too and nicely themed, around an Aztec temple.

Buried in the shade behind the Disk-o is a haunted walkthrough that requires an upcharge to be paid to enjoy (enjoy in the sadist sense of the world)

The log flume wasn't too bad and fortunately not too long. The warm climate meant that I didn't mind riding this as I'd dry out quickly.

The park is home to 2 rollercoasters. This the smaller of the two was the first of the day. Tren de Potosi is themed around a South American mine ride and being a cookie-cut kiddie coaster was OK.

The theming in the park was top notch with some very nice touches. A huge fortress at the north end of the park would be great for some large indoor ride but instead it's part restaurant/part show stage. Maybe it's in their future plans.

Instead of riding horses, in this place you get to ride Llamas. "My name is Llama" in Spanish is "Mi llama es llama".

The signature rollercoaster is Jaguar, which for this year had replaced the usual headbanging restraints with the new vest style, which I'd also experienced at Morey's Piers. The ride was probably much better than it would have been with the original harness but I still got a huge kick going through the roll and with these new restraints you have nothing to hold onto, which confuses me every time.

How wet is the big splash ride? Very!

For those who like their water rides more sedate, the park has a boat tour around the main lake.

Nice touch to have the rapids going around the chair swinger.

This building in the South-West corner houses a shooting dark ride attraction which is a lot of fun. Some of the targets trigger various effects including water sprays (aimed at other riders) and smoke fireballs similar to the Indiana Jones ride made the ride re-rideable. It did lack a final scoreboard, which was a shame.

The park is actually very nice but not a full day attraction. Fortunately I had another plan to fill the day out. The park opens at 11 (well it did on the day I was there). Bear in mind that if you are planning on getting there early only the rides in one half of the park open immediately. The Jaguar coaster is the last to open one hour after the park opens its gates.

Back in the city now and it was time to head to the other side of the city. The city had a large number of horse drawn carriages out and about. They were shipping people to and from the Feria de Abril, a large event in the south.

This building called the Plaza de Armas. It used to be the main train station in the city but in the last few years was converted into a shopping mall.

More stunning art on the Puenta de Cachorro.

Close by is a small model of the Atomium, the legacy of an Expo that took place in Brussels. Seville has a strong Expo history with 2 Expos having taken place in the city. The original one taking place at the turn of the 20th century that has left it's marks on the south of the city, and a more recent one to the north in the area around the theme park.

The beautifully scenic building across the river in the Triana district. It looks like a fake mural.

This is the Seville Bullring, which when not looking like it's watching you, is a major attraction for the locals and some tourists. Not this one though.

This is the Torre del Oro or Tower of Gold. It has not gold but may well have done in its past. It's the only remaining relic of the city's Arabian era. It houses a small museum.

Crossing over the river and heading down to the site of the Seville Fair more and more people in their traditional Andalucian costumes were heading down too. The fair is a major opportunity for families to get together and indulge in tapas, dancing and partying. We have no equivalent in the UK.

This is the main gate to the complex, which is split into two sections.

The main area is set up with hundreds of marquee tents, hired by families and groups in which food is served and most of the socialising takes place. The smaller area, but still rather big to the west is home to a fairground, the largest one in Spain. It was no coincidence that this coaster nerd was visiting the city on this weekend.

Not sure I'm happy about his ride.

This equivalent ride was much better but nowhere near as popular.

The first of many roller coasters was this little one called Mini Mouse. I was too embarressed to ride this at first but was encouraged by friends back home via text to "give it a go" and I did but I had to catch the ride when it was empty.

This little train ride was made more fun for the kids riding it by having a clown smash them in the head with balloons as it came past and turning the ride into a total fight. Balloons seemed to be quite popular additions to these rides.

A haunted walkthrough attraction, which wasn't that popular.

Aside from the two large big wheels, the largest ride was this booster variant and this was quite popular based on the fact it was spinning for most of the days.

The second ride of the day was one that I've ridden before both in Spain and in its travels to the Christmas Fair in Hyde Park in London is Ala Delta (Delta Wing). It's not too bad but a bit "err whut" on some of the corners.

The fair is home to 3 mice coasters, yes 3 and the first one to ride translates to "Crazy Mouse with Hungry Cat". The cat is a tunnel section towards the end.

Selva Encantada or Enchanted Forest is a really unique ride with trains designed to look like hovercrafts designed to fit with a slightly damp water splash at the end.

This wheel is huge and spins really fast. I'd ridden this at a travelling fair in Albacete a fair few years ago.

A rather crazy and bright fun house. There were several of these too.

Raton Vacilon is just a plain old Crazy Mouse.

Jump & Spin does what it says on the can. It's like a classic jump ride but the cars rotate part way through the ride program making it a little more disorientating.

There were 2 Dragon powered coasters in the fair. This one had delusions of grandeur calling itself Super Dragon. The theming was certainly super :)

This is the other dragon coaster. On this one I was repeatedly bashed in the head with a balloon by the ride op each time it came through the station. The lengths I have to go through to for my hobby.

Tronkito was a the one rollercoaster that eluded me. It was too small to ride and too popular to get a seat even if I could fit my fat arse in it. It's a bit brightly coloured huh?

The bungee catapult still elicits screams even at a fair that has some of the best rides on the Spanish touring circuit.

A 5-storey ghost train, which was unfortunately more impressive to look at than it was to ride. I spent most of the ride attempting to keep my head down to prevent it scraping along the ceilings.

This funhouse was themed around Mr Bean for some bizarre reason.

The women in their traditional Flamenco outfits.

Yes, those kids are really being thrown about by a rather silly Tagada program.

One of the amazing things I like about the fairs in Spain is the customisation to some of the rides that would not clear the silly health and safety rules we have home. Here's one example, take a rainbow ride and replace the seating platform with a row of cages in which people stand unrestrained.

Here's another and one of my favourites that I recall riding in Albacete. Yes, those are cages on the end with people just standing inside them. At the top of the swing you lift off the floor and can hit your head on the ceiling of the cage.

Next coaster was a scenic railway themed powered kiddy coaster with unauthorised Disney branding. The ride is called Fantasia.

and near to that was a powered caterpillar, which is what Tokito translates to.

The 3rd mouse coaster translates to Super Mouse with Crazy Cheese. Another mouse ride with a tunnel.

I'd ridden one of these in Ireland and this one was just as intense.

More outfits, some very nice and others not as much.

Back into the main city again and it was time to check out the first Expo site, which was built in an attempt to open trade channels between Spain and South America. Countries from there were invited to build some amazing buildings. This one is the Argentinian contribution.

The Colombian Pavilion.

I'm not sure who this belonged to? It's now a dancing school.

The centrepiece of the Expo is the Plaza de Espana a stunning building that I spent a good while walking around and enjoying.

Clearly these Chinese folk were impressed with it too choosing to use it for their wedding.

Loving the art on the this recycling bin.

The city has tried to develop it's public transport including a modern tram system, no clang clang clang here.

There is a Metro but it's very small and currently consists of a single line (there are plans to expand it). As it runs east west and I was walking north south north south north south I had no urge to ride it.

This is the Hotel Alphonso XIII and it's the grandest hotel in the city. It's guests will likely include kings and queens and the uber rich.

The Seville Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the third largest church in the world. It's also extremely opulent inside and I can't but help think as I do every time that if the church sold just a small amount of it's priceless collection could they not save so many people with the money earned? The paradox of the Christian Church that I can never rationalise.

As said earlier smaller churches that are found all over the city.

The Archivo de Indias building opposite the cathedral.

This is where Beethoven ended up having been set in Carbonite for not paying his debts to Jabba.

Amazing!

The city has two rival tour bus services; a green one and a red one. If you're colour blind the city runs a single grey service. Both follow similar routes. I chose the red one and it gives you a one hour tour around both expo sites and the spaces in between. It was fine and gave my feet a rest.

This is the Costurero de la Reina Azotea was also part of the Expo but is now a tourist information office.

The 29 Expo area of Seville was beautiful and I loved the architecture here. The best attraction had to be the Plaza de Espana which is a must do if visiting the city.

In stark contrast to the 29 Expo is the 92 Expo which again gave the city a large number of buildings but these were much more modern and not as pretty. Like some Expo sites I'd been to the buildings didn't appear to be used giving the area a bit of a ghost town feeling. This is the Torre Triana which is now an administrative building.

The Future Plaza was the centrepiece of the Expo. I don't know what it's used for now, nothing perhaps. A replica of the Ariane rocket sits outside. Unlike the first expo site which was stunning, this was not so and I didn't take too many photos here.

Another tower Torre Perdigones, this time a relic of the ammunitions industry that the tower was part of. Another Assassins Creed challenge.

People getting ready to see bulls killed and once again the building refused to stop staring at me.

Seville is another pretty city and again small enough to do in a day. I would definitely recommend visiting it during the Fair season, even if not a fan of the fairground as you get to see a lot of Spanish culture, making the visit a little more special than at any other time.

Lisbon

2011-05-13T21:02:00.001+01:00

Having caught a pretty severe travel bug and with a long weekend at hand I took the chance to nail another capital city, Lisbon in Portugal and whilst there also visit Seville in Spain. Not a capital the home of the largest travelling fair in Spain. So capital tick and coaster ticks were the order of the day.

Lisbon is a prety small capital city by all accounts but to help me get around I chose to purchase a Lisboa card, which can be ordered online in advance from the internet or for a slightly higher amount at the airport information booth (about 20 euros vs the 17.50 that I paid). It's one of these cards that offers discounted entry to the majority of the tourist attractions but this also offers a day's free travel on the buses and metros. It also offers a discount on the bus that takes you from the airport to the centre of town, with various stops along the way. A bargain 2 euros instead of the usual 3.50. So the first tip is to get the card and the second is to stay away from the taxis; they need you more than you need them.

The bus journey itself takes around 25 minutes and passes most of the signifcant landmarks on the way. Not as a detour but you'll soon realise everything of note is on the one route. I chose to jump off in the main city square called Rossi but I think it goes a little further on.

and this is the main square. Portugal is famous for many things including the intricate paving, an example of which was done here. Whether this is intentional or caused by the excesses of too much port drinking (another famous thing) I don't know.

Looking north in the square behind the statue of Pedro IV (not short for intravenous) is the National Theatre. I guess this square is the equivalent of Trafalgar Square back home. The guy was a king of Portugal and at the same time the first Emperor of Brazil. He played a mean game of Risk!

Tucked away in the back streets to the south is this well themed drop tower called the Santa Justa Lift. It's actually an elevator that takes you up to the top of the hill that overlooks the main square. A ride that costs 3 euros each way or is free to those with the Lisboa card. The card also entitled me to access to the top level for free where you can get a view over some of the city.

The main square with the theatre more visible from up here. It lies to the North.

The ruined cathedral atop the hill that now houses a museum.

The view East towards the other hill atop which sits the city castle. You can walk up here or you can take a tram, which gets you close. Perhaps not a surprise the metro doesn't get close.

The Castle of Sao Jorge, like cocaine, is of a Moorish design and was built in the 16th Century.

To the south is what was the main entrance to the city on the banks of the Tagar River. It's here where the main port would be and that acted as the hub of the country's seafaring endeavours and industry. Portugal does not translate to Port of the Ladies.

Straight down is an untimely death.

The elevator is well made, a vast steel structure that sticks out a little place amongst all the brickworked buldings surrounding it. The detail in the lift is pretty good. Just a shame the drop tower bit was too slow and safe. In a city that lacks a proper theme park, this is the best they have if vertical drops are your thing.

Being a major city, you have the same pains that you have elsewhere. Stupid statues such as this guy being one of them. "Why take a picture of people pretending to be a statue? Everyone's a statue in a photograph" Karl Pilkington.

This was different though. A cow that has somehow managed to get its head through the window of the shop.

On the main street tourist trap street Praca da Figuera between Trafalgar Square and the River Thames. The people here are very friendly. One kind chap offered me some of his Moorish cocaine!

The first stencil of note. Not sure what it was on about though. The tram seemed to be a bit noisy to offer a chilled environment and it was a hot day, so it failed on 2 counts.

This one was a little bit better, and the artist is definitely right. You don't need a Lisboa card discount to enjoy these!

At the bottom of the main street is a second main square. The gate is called the Rua Augusta Arch and the statue is in honour of King Jose I who is famous for being a King and the first to have Jose as a first name. The buildings around three of the sides are now mostly administrative centres for the city (the river is on the fourth)

In this square is a static tram that is now the home of the Yellow Bus Company, one of a number of tourist sightseeing companies that offer tours around the city. I chose to get the 3-for-1 ticket with these guys as it offered the most of a whistle-stop tour of the city and in the day-and-a-half I had here I wanted to see as much as I could. A blue route offers a tour around the city centre and nearby town of Belem. A purple route offers a trip out to the Park of Nations to the east of the city. The third trip is the tram tour which runs around the old town taking in the previously photographed cathedral church structure and the castle. All of this was 25 euros and offers the obligatory hop-on, hop-off service with the unmentioned lengthy wait for the next bus.

The city's design museum is close by. I chose not to go in this one as the pictures of the random things shown here didn't entice me in.

The undercover police vehicles are quite obvious. I wonder which branch of the force this belongs to though?

One of the city trams, and they're the classic old wooden styles that are often being replaced so this was nice to see.Klang! Klang! Klang!

This city was full of main squares, this one is located one block east from the first one. I'm not sure why they had two so close to each other. Perhaps one is an off-site backup of the other.

In the centre of this one is a statue of some other former leader. They're certainly well represented here!

Heading north from the squares was this impressive looking structure. It's actually Rossio Station. We certainly don't have anything grand like this in London. The two prominent horseshoe entrances are built in the Neo-Manueline style. Rumour says that those beyond the left door only speak the truth and those through the right always lie, so bear that in mind if you're asking for directions once inside.

Just north from there is this impressive looking theatre, so opulent that they could afford to put a garden inside it for all to see. The Eden Theatre as it's named is just another city theatre, just don't buy an apple from them.

This statue in the city of Restauradores Square celebrates the restoration of the Portuguese independance from their Spanish neighbours.

and this one obviously commemorates the war dead. It became apparent that this city likes having big wide avenues joining its main squares and huge roundabouts.

This roundabout is at the south end of George VII park, which they named after a visit from him. Prior to his visit it was named after an other visitor who frequented the park a lot, "Joey the Drunken Bum" Park.

Here's the view from the top of the park looking back down towards the river.

Smelly sausages?

This rather opulent and grand building is actually the headquarters for one of the countrys' banks. Given the state of the economy in Portugal it must be a bit of a kick in the teeth to see this. (at the time of writing Portugal were seeking a financial bailout from the European Monetary Fund)

In the centre of another roundabout is this arch commemorating a large viaduct that use to run here and which provided water to the city, which seemed a little odd given the city is located beside a river.

This castle looking building is actually the city prison, slap bang in the centre of the city. It appears fairly easy to build a ropeway from the buildings across the street into this complex.

Apparently this the second most well known cathedral in the city. I don't think I ever encountered the first.

Leaving the city of Lisbon for a bit we took a slight detour along the coast westwards to the city of Belem. Along the way you go under the Golden Gate Bridge, which was brought here last year from San Fransisco following a number of attempts from mother nature and Hollywood movies to destroy it. Not everything you see in the films is CGI you know!

At the other end of the bridge, and barely visible here above the tree is the large statue of Jesus that used to overlook Rio de Janeiro. Reports that the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China are also being brought here are unconfirmed at this time.

The wonderful looking Jeronimos Monastery, which had time allowed I would have spent more time at. Built in the 16th Century its now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In a nearby music hall this artist was putting on a show. Guess what his surname translates to?

The Belem war musuem is housed in an old fort that in it's original guise would have protected the city from riverside intruders, although it's not clear how they would have identified submarines or scuba divers.

Belem Tower looked quite amazing in the photos when planning the trip. However up close it didn't seem quite as grand or impressive. Perhaps that's more down to the ability of the photographer than the building. Alternatively it could be that a midget took the photos causing it to appear larger, or perhaps it was taken in a rear view mirror. The detail in the architecture however was amazing.

Belem Marina, where the rich hang out.

A peculiar looking lighthouse, which was part of the inspiration for the one in Islands of Adventure. I just made that up.

This is Padrao dos Descobrimentos, a huge monument commemorating the expeditions of the Portuguese sea-faring folk. They couldn't get everyone they wanted onto it so had to plump for using generic roles instead.

The Portuguese Sex industry has some catching up to do! Offering it from the back of a van can't be too good for business.

A slightly better photo of the Jesus statue taken on the way back. I wonder if the locals of Alamada were pissed off that when built it faced the city of Lisbon and showing his arse to them?

An oriental museum, which is great because when you think "I want to go and see some Orient exhibitions" the idea of travelling to Portugal to see it would be better than say, China or Japan. I realise that its ideal for the locals, but it's also marketed to the tourists.

A nice design for a plant pot/seat combo found next to one of the metro stations along the coast.

Here's the tour tram. Clang! Clang! Clang!

More crazy paving. The designs are not painted on, they're actually different coloured stones that fit better together than some of Escher's woodcut creations.

The NW corner of the Praca do Comercio square where parasols gave some solace from the blazing sun. I on the other hand had chosen to ride the open-topped bus, a less clever choice by quite some margin. Don't forget the sun-block people!

This stunning ornately sculptured entrance is on a back street near the start of the 2 bus tours.

A nice, if over-the-top loft conversion.

Some Portuguese is easy to translate. This, for example, is the office of the Super Justice League, a local crime-fighting organisation.

This house, currently being renovated is known as the diamond house. Rather disappointingly to those who try to break in thinking it's a home to gemstones, the name only refers to the extreme exterior.

The Museum of Fado, situated along the coast gives a history of the emotional music synonymous with the city, and country as a whole. The music typically sounds depressing as it would be played by people who's families were out at sea discovering America etc. Fado guitars contain 12 strings, which makes it less likely to be converted to Guitar Hero.

This used to be a military base ensuring the protection of the city from those attacking along the river. But nowadays with the threat all but gone, it's home to a military musuem. The lazy option as it means they didn't have to try too hard to populate it with stuff.

Santa Apolonia is one of the train stations, although it looks like a grand hotel.

Everytime I go away I always seem to just miss out on a music act that I like. In the past it's been the likes of Jean Michel Jarre, Paul van Dyk and Jeff Mills (although I don't really like his stuff, I'd still see him though). On this occasion I'd just missed out on Sub Focus, who almost took the drum and bass crown from Pendulum, before they through it away and began pandering to the rock audience.

Show me the moniz... So I did. (This'll only make sense to those who are familar with Phone Jacker).

This was a nunnery. Guess how many nuns I saw on this occasion? Nun...Moving on.

I almost failed to get a shot of this due to the trees in the way, but hopefully you can make it out. A nice scary piece in the no-mans-land close to the Park of Nations.

Nice tile work that won't induce headaches in those driving past at all.

Heading into the Park of Nations now, which in its previous guise was an Expo site for the 1998 event. It had a sea-faring theme so a lot of the buildings here looked like sails and were decorated with whirlpools etc.

That's the Expo mascot, who's name is Gil giving it a weak sea pun. He looked like a modern day smurf.

An odd looking pavilion that has a huge single piece concrete roof suspended between two structures at each end. The roof dips in it's centre hiding the cables that hold it up. Imagine being under that when the cable snaps...splat

The ufo building was the Utopian Pavilion during the Expo. It's now a multi-purpose arena for concerts and sporting events.

As with many Expos there's always a challenge to keep the area popular once the Expo is over. If not done properly the only legacy is a ghost town, as I'd seen with the one in Korea. Lisbon had gotten around it by turning the area into a huge business and commerical district and making one of the pavilions home to a huge Oceanrium.

Some of the offices were now built on prime real estate, transforming the area significantly. This also gave me the opportunity for stupid punnage.

At the north end of the Expo complex is the Vasco da Gama tower, which offers nice views over the entire Expo site, and out to sea. There's also a revolving restaurant at the top for those that are into that.

On the route back the sightseeing bus passed by this mural, which I barely caught and managed to get a photo off. It looked pretty cool so I figured I'd head back later in the day to see it properly. I was quite happy to drop Belem Tower, my initial plan for this.

This is Oriente Station at the end of the red metro line. The roof is pretty cool.

Orc seems to have left his name on this building :)

Between the Park of Nations and the centre of the town lies a huge desolate area that is earmarked for construction but currently looks a bit desolate. A few years ago there used to be a large city park here with a fairground and a couple of coasters but it disappeared to make way for a construction project that never happened. There is talk of bringing the park back, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

This is the city's bullring at Campo Pequeno. From March, there's an event on every Thursday evening for those that are inclined to see it. It was Thursday today but I chose not to see it. I don't see the beauty in the act of killing a scared animal despite how well it's marketed here.

After a short drive we ended up at the city zoo. Painted supports on the underpass heralded our arrival.

Having seen this aqueduct in the distance I chose to jump off the bus and try to get a photo of it. A fence and hefty walk prevented me from getting close but it still looked impressive.

With the zoo not too far away I decided to check that out. The zoo sits wihin a park that is free to enter.

Within it lies a small amusement park called "Animax" which contains an equally small number of rides.

Two in fact: a carousel and a kiddy rainbow variant.

A scary looking cable car system runs in a triangle formation around the zoo and park.

Being less inclined to wait for the next sightseeing bus I decided to test the Metro out. Having failed to find a rollercoaster in the zoo (not that I thought there was one but it was worth the check) I decided to head west to Colegia Militaria station on the blue line for the one coaster that I did know the city had.

The Metro is fairly new and pretty impressive but compared to our Underground system in London it'd be hard to be worse. The trains don't run as frequently but are not crowded. On every trip I was able to get a seat, even during rush hour. The Lisboa ticket also ensured I didn't have to worry about buying tickets, I could just touch in with that. Do be wary of people coming through the gates on your ticket by pushing in behind you. We have the same trouble in London and walking through slowly usually does the trick.

Next to the station is the Colombo Centre, named after the glass eyed detective who discovered America after the Natives did, this is a large shopping mall with a pretty decent selection of shops and eating places.

In the SW corner of the mall is the Funcenter. It's an indoor play centre with a decent sized rollercoaster running around it.

The coaster is called Montanha Russa (Spanish for Russian Mountain, the original name given to rollercoasters) and is heavily sponsored by a sugary drink brand with the logo covering the train and supports

The ride was OK. Tick, next! For those that are interested it costs 2.30 euros and you get to go around 3 times for that. Having gotten my coaster fix it was time to head back into the main city with an aim to nurture another OCD. Street Art.

This is close to Picoas station on the Yellow line. It's a nice building but it's not as nice as the one across the street.

Lisbon is home to some amazing art. I remember seeing this on a graffiti thread a year or so ago but completely forgot about it in researching this trip. Fortunately the bus that took me to the city centre from the airport drove me right past it. This is done by Os Gemos, a couple of Brazilian twins.

On the same building is an anti-corporate piece by BLU, he's the Italian equivalent of Banksy in that his identity is a mystery.

His stuff is always pretty large scale and has an amazing level of detail. No idea how he can remain anonymous when he needs a crane to do pieces on this scale.

But there were more. On the building next door was this piece by Sam3. This Spanish artist is also well known for his big murals and he tends to have large silhouettes as the centre piece.

Next door to that was this funky crocodile. I'm think this was another Os Gemeos piece.

and around the corner from that was a weird piece, the artist of which I couldn't find. But these 3 buildings were stunning.

About 10 minutes from there was this one, which was just bizarre and I wasn't going to search Google for "Lisbon Goatse" to try to ascertain the artist. It's close to the Edward VII park.

This was my hotel, the HIE, 5 minutes walk from the bullring. It was not a bad hotel but did take a little but of finding as it's tucked away behind some other more impressive buildings.

Close to the hotel was the Nossa Senhora de Fatima. A church dedicated to Britains most well known female Javelin thrower.

Back on the Metro I decided to head back out for that comic mural I passed on the bus earlier in the day. This nice piece was on the way out of Oriente station. It was nice that this form of art was respected enough to be allowed in the station.

and this was the mural, even more amazing was that it was a tiled piece. The detail was great and contained legends from Marvel, DC and other comic sources (even some early 2000AD). I must have spent a good half hour just taking this in. Why can't the cartoon genre be held up with the same respect back in the UK? I turned down a return visit to Belem to visit this and I'm so glad I did. Now if I ever decide to re-tile the kitchen...

Back at Oriente station I'd spotted a large mall opposite so I decided to give that a quick visit.

In here they sell brightly coloured toilet paper.

and a rather inappropriate name for a gents' underwear shop.

Deciding that I'd covered pretty much everything I wanted to see and more I went off to grab some dinner where I watched a football match between local team Benfica and SC Barga. Once I realised the result wasn't going to go Benfica's way I decided to leave before the passionate fans run amok. To end the day I took another walk down to the river, this time at night.

Rossi station with it's horseshoe entrances.

Rossi Square

The Castle

The lift

and the main square at the waterfront.

Lisbon is a very clean and pretty city and is really easy to get around, making it perfect for a quick sight-seeing trip. Lisbon also gave me my 35th capital city, not that I count that sort of thing.

New way of reading the site

2011-04-07T21:54:00.000+01:00

Google have made some updates to ways in which these sites can be read.
For mine try this link

30 day music challenge

2011-03-17T23:01:00.000Z

This silly viral thing has been doing the rounds on Facebook. I thought I'd put all the submissions in one place here. The idea is that you choose a song that fits each of the 30 headings.

day 01 - your favorite song

I used to religiously watch Casey Kasem present the Billboard Top 10, which would be shown in the small hours many years ago. I instantly fell in love with this track and it was getting a lot of play in the alternative clubs I was going to at the time. I'd seen Kamron in House Party 2 and didn't realise he was a legit rapper. I also thought the name of the group was quite amusing considering none of them were black. They did have a legit pedigree though, it was the DJ from Public Enemy who was producing them.

day 02 - your least favorite song

Just horrible and got so much airplay at the time that you couldn't avoid it even if you wanted to. 1 boy, 1 girl (who was in fact a boy) and a precocious brat you just wanted to smack in the face.

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

A classic Happy Hardcore anthem that has been copied, cloned and butchered over the years. This is the original Force & Styles version (and clearly part of a mix unfortunately). I'm quite proud to have their All Over the UK album in my collection. It's not available any more and I don't think many of their fans realised they ever released it! Pretty much every track on the album makes me happy but this is the best one!

day 04 - a song that makes you sad

This was easy to answer. There's too much emotion in his voice to not feel sad listening to it, especially knowing he died soon afterwards. One of a small group of cover versions that far exceed the original version of the track. Sorry Nine Inch Nails, but he made this track his own.

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

This tune makes me both sad and happy and I'm not going into it anymore here. The concept behind the video is both simple and beautiful, and does take me back to my past. Just not that far back :)

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

Hmm, could this possibly have something to do with my love of Japan? Morning Musume and AKB48 were the two biggest acts in the J-Pop scene when I first went to Japan. In fact I think I inadvertantly spotted the latter in a store in Tokyo on my first trip dressed as French Maids. But this track is from the Musume lot. It's just crazy bonkers and even more so when you read the lyrics.

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

Yes it's a clubbing cliché now but this track takes me back to a club in Islington called Complex I used to go to a lot where Paul Oakenfold would play this well before it's association with the Trainspotting film. I just had my first proper clubbing epiphany where everyone was at one, and no drugs were involved; just the right music, up for it crowd, and overall atmosphere.

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

Time for a rap track now and I loved Digital Undergrounds quirky style. 2-Pac's rhyming towards the end of the track was just incredible at the time, and has been copied quite a lot since. I was a big fan of ITV's Chart Show and I would make video mix tapes of the tracks I liked (watch the Saturday morning episode then record the repeat on Sunday night). This bit of the video tape got rewound a great deal as I'd scribble down line after line of lyric in an attempt to learn it.

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

I'm probably going to lose some friends for this one but I love the Step Up movies and the third one that this was taken from is probably my favourite 3D film of all time. The track is corny David Guetta hip hop pop but I find this track infectious and it makes me want to dance every time.

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

There isn't much music that sends me to sleep but Tan Dun's soundtracks manage it every time. I love Crouching Tiger and Hero and all those sorts of films but I find it almost impossible to remain awake with music like this playing in the background.

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Seen as a joke in the 80s, the Beastie Boys dusted off the abuse and came back as snow boarding buddhists but still a great rap act and this act was probably my favourite act through the 90s. Check Your Head is probably my favourite album. I have many fond memories of seeing them live and even got a high-5 off MCA :)

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

It's subject is a little unfair as I don't hate any band, but I chose this track because I don't get the Juggalo scene at all, even more so when they found religion. Another reason for choosing this one is that this track makes me laugh but I already had another track for that category :) They do have a point though, how do magnets work?

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

I love DJ Format's old school hip hop style and Jurassic 5 are one of the most under-rated acts of all time. Put both together and a video including mascots b-boying and the end result is something that I will never tire of.

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

When Bjork blew up in the 90s she opened the doors to other Scandinavian acts to hit the mainstream. Stina Nordemstan sort of snuck in quietly but left a mark on me. Little Star is such a beautiful track, in fact the whole album is really good. Haunting yet uplifting.

day 15 - a song that describes you

This was a horrible category as I hate trying to describe myself and had I gone to friends I'd have likely ended up with a roller coaster themed track. So in my constant self-deprecating manner I've chosen this. It would have been Teenage Dirtbag but I'm too old for that title now :)

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

Not "hate" as such as it's still a good tune. It's just dated pretty horribly. I remember going mental to this at various dance festivals and the acid hook is still pretty infectious. If I was to hear it being played in a club now I know I'd stop dancing and wander off. In fact I'd be surprised if anyone plays the video to the end.

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

At the time of compiling the list this track was getting a lot of airplay and was perhaps the only single in this genre that I've bought which is why I've picked it. I'm not sure about the Miss Dynamite bits but Katy has a good voice and is looking good in her vest and pj bottoms. There's a nice old school vibe to the backing track.

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

I'm cheating on this one as it was played on the radio, albeit only once. DJ Yoda and Greenpeace included this in their first Essential Mix played on Radio 1. It's a crazy track with some great lyrics and rhymes that left such an impression on me that not only did I track down the artist (Ugly Duckling) but had me buying their entire back catalogue and seeing them live a couple of times. Their following in the UK is bigger than in their homeland of the US but is still under the mainstream radar. A rap equivalent of Bill Hicks perhaps, and equally good.

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

The album in question is the original version of Paul Oakenfold's Goa mix, released in 94 and which has easily stood the test of time. I still play it a lot. So full of great tunes but this one stands out. Timeless trance monster from the Man With No Name.

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

I don't really get angry that often but this is where rock plays its part. Angry shouting tracks serve their purpose if I need to let the tension out. Transplants were introduced to me by a friend who knows this genre way better than I could ever do, and their upbeat shouty style works a treat when the time is right.

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

By far the cheesiest selection in my list. Another early Happy Hardcore anthem but one that instantly puts a smile on my usually frowning face and has me singing along. I have been known to skip along walls at 5 in the morning to this :)

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

The Radiohead original is good too but I think the Kolacny all-girl choir's version has a little more emotion in it. Who listens to music when they're sad though?

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

Not that I ever seeing myself ever getting married but if I had to pick a tune then this is it. I love WK's first album, there are so many positive upbeat pure rock tracks on this album, just a shame some of them are so short. I guess I could have it put on a loop for the first dance. I do need to be aware that there's a fine line with playing rock at weddings though!

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

Orbital were a massive part of my growing up and showed how electronic music could elicit emotion, which most acts at the time couldn't do. The original Belfast is beautiful on its own but I recall hearing this bootleg version with Therapy?'s "Wasted" track which adds an extra dimension.

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

I'm currently into mashups where two or more tracks are put together to make a new composition. Get the combination of tracks right you can end up with some genius tracks such as this one. If done properly the original tracks if heard on their own sound incomplete. This one makes me laugh every time I hear it.

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

Many a lunchtime would be spent going over to Brent Cross and playing on the keyboards in Dixons. At the time this track was the measure of one-handed keyboard playing ability. It was as good as I ever got unfortunately, this and "If I Was A Rich Man" from "Fidder on the Roof".

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

I'm so jealous of any scratch DJ and am a huge fan turntablists such as The Scratch Perverts and Mixmaster Mike of the Invisibil Scratch Pickles, who does an amazing job in this video with a single deck. When I listen to scratching on my ipod I do feel the urge to air-scratch, air-guitar just isn't my thing.

day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

Two reasons why I picked this one. Firstly I would play this on repeat very loudly so I need to apologise to my neighbours. Secondly Marilyn Manson's concerts have the hottest dressed female fans!

day 29 - a song from your childhood

I've chosen Kraftwerk but the video is from Breakdance The Movie which was a massive film during my childhood growing up in Cyprus, where there were very few films in English. Either I took up Breakdancing, motorcycle riding whilst singing (Grease 2) or running around with a machine gun (Rambo). From this clip I'm able to balance a broom, although this guy used wires.

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

This video almost went viral in 2010. Hot Chip are geeky but still pretty good. I've seen them live with LCD Soundsystem, fortunately no laser fight broke out on that occasion.

South Africa

2011-01-17T23:21:00.002Z

I've done quite a bit of travelling over the last few years, a mixture of short weekend breaks and long haul adventures. Last Summer I was invited to a trip taking place this January that combined both; a weekend break to South Africa. The itinerary was 1 day travelling down, 2 days in Cape Town, 2 days in Joburg and 1 day to fly home, quite easily my most bonkers trip to date.

Here's the report.

Ratanga Junction

The first of the main parks was Ratanga Junction, a short drive of around 20 minutes from the centre of Cape Town. The park is home to 3 rollercoasters and a bunch of other rides. The park has a Q shaped layout with the park entrance being the tail and the main path circling the park.

Waiting in the queue line was a snake handler. I know someone who wouldn't be comfortable here!

At the main intersection of the path is the theatre area surrounded by a number of restaurants. There was a fairly average talent show on later in the day, but the best entertainment for me came from the park DJ who was playing some great dance tracks around the park.

The parks promotion was to run a stupid distance over a month. The majority of running was being done by gymnuts from the local gym down the road. The offer was there for park visitors to join in. Whilst I appreciate the keeping fit idea, this really wasn't my thing :)

We had tried to head to Cobra first figuring the queue line would be longest there. As it happened the path took us to the rollerskater ride first. Bushwhacker was not a bad ride but it's just a generic rollercoaster ride. A little tip: when you get to the music arena head left for Bushwhacker and right for Cobra.

Perhaps the best name for a Dodgems ride, ever!

The second coaster we did was the big one, Cobra. This is a Vekoma SLC, a model of ride that has a reputation for being very rough and sore on the ears although I like them, the majority just don't know how to ride them properly :) This one has less cramped and more comfortable head rests and was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. So we'd found one of the best SLCs in the world, just a shame it is so far to get to.

One of the things that was apparently obvious in the park is that beer was encouraged, with bars dotted around. I did like that the area in the Cobra exit, where most parks would install a shop had a bar instead.

The log flume looked very good but the people coming off it were a bit too soaked for my liking. The ride does feature a tracked hill just in case people want to count this as another coaster. I didn't.

The park did like their signs. This one tickled us most.

and this one was amusing too. It's in the entrance to Cobra where the queue line passes through a snake and reptile house. I know of one person who'll have a problem riding this.

Kids enjoying the rapids which we called Crocodile George (hi George!). It looked like it got you wet without the need to throw yourself under a waterfall.

There aren't many parks that can boast having a real aircraft for theming. This is above the rapids and also serves as a conference room for parties etc. Certainly different.

One of the most picturesque parks...probably

The river boat ride. Very pretty!

Not surprisingly some of the rides are themed around native animals.

The final coaster is Diamond Devil Run, a Vekoma mine train ride with two lift hills and a decent track length. This ride was a pretty good too but not quite as good as Cobra IMO.

Another great sign.

If you want to illegally trade in a boat you have the opportunity to peddle one here.

There aren't many parks that feature a paintball gun attraction. Welcome to Ratanga!

Beautifully themed pirate ship. One of the better ones I'd ever seen!

On the way out I spotted this amazing advert. As if you hadn't drunk enough beer in the park you were then given the option of going to a local bar and exchanging our wrist band for a free pint....So that's where headed off next.

Grand West Casino

A short journey from the free beer bar is the Grand West Casino which is home to a small amusement park called Magic Castle and a single roller coaster. To get to it we did the following.

From the coffee shop walk across the street to a car park full of minibuses. This is public transport for the locals, which seemed to consist of poorer people who can't afford a car.
Board the first available bus for Goodwood. If it looks like a squeeze getting in get into the one behind.
At the first stop jump out and lose your wallet. Think to yourself that one of the people in the van must have stolen it but don't accuse them out loud. Find the wallet in your backpocket and blame your fat arse out loud.

Walk a block south towards the railway station which you should cross over. The casino is on the other side.

An awesome advert. Who in hell wants a poster of Rooney?

Some photos from inside Magic Castle

We didn't want to face GrandWest Security. They sounded very mean...

The coaster was a ride once and never ride again experience. The only issue was that the park had a policy of keeping the train running until the queue was long enough to fill the next train or the operator got bored. I think after about 8 laps we eventually got to leave, embarrassment levels pushed to the max.

Outside the amusement park is a large sized go-kart track.

The casino itself looked a little tacky but still way better than those I experienced in Niagra Falls last year. Nice to see that Cirque are visiting with a touring show; a pity it was later in the year.

The casino is however very kids friendly and worthwhile place to visit. In one room we found a full sized ice rink, which you had to pay to enter regardless of whether you were skating or not. This explains why the photo is taken from afar through the miserable looking security guard dude who looked uncannily liked the guy who stopped me taking photos of Byker Grove when I visited that.

Table Mountain
The second day in Cape Town was spent during touristy stuff and that began with a trip to Table Mountain. The over friendly taxi driver who was clearly looking to be an all day guide ("my brother has a winery"...) took us to the cable car and from there we rode to the top.

I've heard that you're very lucky if you make it to the top of the mountain and have a clear view to the city. Usually clouds get in the way.

So how fortunate was I to get photos like this? Yes there was some cloud blocking the view to the beaches to the west but the city was perfect! This was a great side trip and is very easy to do from the city. If you have motion sickness be warned that the gondola that takes you up the mountain revolves, which not everyone is happy experiencing.

Lovely!

Just more pictures taken from the top.

A brave lad attempts the abseil down the mountain.

Cape Town
From the mountain we grabbed a quick lunch and then caught the city's red tour bus. One of those red double deckers that can be found in most large cities and that gives a whistle stop tour of the city, perfect for our intensive trip. We rode the bus for the majority of the route. Martin got out near when we got close to the hotel. I remained on to complete the lap.

Inside the main city park.

Interesting architecture which looked a bit like we were in New Orleans.

The city castle, which is actually a fort, but they call it a castle and as most of them are bigger than me who am I to argue?

Interesting mural where the sculptor snuck the faces of his friends into the design. I learnt this from the bus tour.

Inside District 6 where the Government, in a moment of clear lunacy, demolished a load of homes leaving 60,000 people homeless. Only the religious buildings were left unscathed. Seeing the impact of the evil side to human nature reminded me of my visit to Auschwitz last year and like that I couldn't get my head around why it had happened.

The train station in the centre of Cape Town

At one time this silo was the 2nd largest building in Africa, the first being the pyramids trivia fans!

In the V&A area a cartoonish sculpture celebrating the 4 African peeps who've won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The harbour with Table Mountain in the background.

There used to be a small rollercoaster here, which is still in the Google Earth Satellite imagery but when we got there we a little disappointed to find an observation wheel on the plot of land where the coaster used to be. Actually subsequent research highlighted that the coaster was removed to make way for an attempt at making the largest saucepan, which then made way for the wheel.

We ate here and had a delicious feast of seafish and catches of the day. All very reasonably priced too, which given the state of the pound and how weak it is internationally is a rare thing.

A strange art installation made from Coca Cola crates that was clearly hanging over from Christmas. At first look I thought it was Santa flipping a double-bird.

The city's football stadium, which housed some of the main games in the recent World Cup.

Passing along the coast it became apparent that the majority of the coastline was rocks and not sand, which is why the beaches are probably surrounded with the richer communities.

These trees are leaning like this because apparently the sea winds bounce off the buildings and blow the trees back towards the sea. I learnt this from the tour bus.

Those that couldn't make the beaches could pay to enter a lido in the rocky beach area.

The mist rolling in obscuring the beaches.

The peaks at the back of table mountain are called the 12 Disciples but there are 17 of them.

JoBurg
We didn't explore JoBurg, we just didn't feel like it. It had a feel of being a hub city where people only come to the city to go somewhere else. We did have plans to visit a small funfair in Pretoria but a call on the day revealed there were no roller coasters this year so we were less inclined to go and visit it.

The largest newspaper advert?

We were staying in the Intercontinental, which is within walking distance of the airport. It's a nice hotel but it cost a packet. Fortunately the room was paid for with air mile points, even more fortunate they weren't mine (but I did offer to pay my share)

I found this quite amusing in the airport, but given hunting is popular here in South Africa (animals I hope) it's not surprising.

We also discovered that Wimpy is more popular than McDonalds. They've all but disappeared from the UK (I only know of one in Croydon), perhaps they all emigrated here!

This pun gets the Ellis seal of approval! It was the best one of the trip.

Gold Reef City

Gold Reef City is the large theme park about 40 minutes drive outside of Joburg. When we got there there was a sizeable crowd and a slight rain shower. When purchasing our ticket we were shown a sign that read no refunds would be given due to poor weather and we had to agree to that before the ticket was handed over. A bit stern but an omen of what was to come...

The park has some very nice theming mostly themed around the old mining period where the industry was in its prime. It reminded me of Silver Dollar City, similar themed period but other parts of the park were nicely themed also.

The only rides that were down today were the Top Spin and the Log flume, which boded really well as it meant we had all six coasters to ride.

In the childrens section of the park is the latest addition to the coaster list. Called Shongololo (which means millipede). Now this ride has a clear rule that adults can't ride without kids. So how were we to get on this one? We gaijin thumped them and just jumped in next to 2 kids that had boarded in front of us. It was a "tick, next" coaster. The only thing impeding me from doing that was that I got my legs stuck in the seat and it took a little while to free myself.

Jonzi's Express was a really nice ride too. This park was impressing me more and more. The layout was very similar to the larger travelling Schwarzkopf rides (Olympia Looping, Magnum Force) but without the loops, lots of swooping turns, all very smooth indeed. Interestingly the ride isn't made by Schwarzkopf but is a clone. We think the ride may have travelled under the name Japan Coaster before finding a home here. Don't ask me how I know, it's rather too geeky to admit :)

Golden Loop is the park's shuttle loop and is arguably the best coaster in the park. It's certainly one of the better Shuttle Loop rides that I've ever been on. Super smooth and lots of fun to ride. It was the only coaster that I rode more than once.

I wonder what food they sell here?

The powered mine train wasn't bad either with a lengthy track that includes an outdoor run through the foliage and a hidden cave section. Word to the wise, don't sit on the left if you've got a wrestler in the train with you. Most of the turns are banked to the left and if they don't hold their weight up you're getting crushed.

The park is home to Tower of Terror, a drop ride that is nicely themed around a coal mine elevator shaft. Clearly inspired by Oblivion at Alton Towers the ride drops vertically into a shaft before remerging above ground. Unlike the Alton ride this one twists slightly on the way down in preparation for the impending turn.

The lift that takes the ride up is an elevator. This is the smoothest part of the ride because the car isn't travelling along any bumpy track at this time.

Taking photos of the drop turned out to be quite tricky. The crappy skys made the exposure terrible, but these were the best pics of a bad bunch. The drop is alright, the bottom of the drop isn't. Two bangs as the car levels out and my head had taken the brunt of the impact.

Glad to have made it all the way around back into the station I decided that one go was enough. I'd got my front-row ride and a memory to take away albeit a concussed one.

A more accurate name for the ride can be got by taking one step to the left.

Inspired by Theme Park Tycoon? Fences, bin, bench, bench, bench, another bench...

The big wheel offers some decent photo opportunities of Anaconda, Golden Loop and Jonzi's Express. It's too close to Tower of Terror however.

Liking the sign in the rapid station.

Anaconda was the last ride of the day and was a little too much touch-and-go for our liking. The problem was that the park has a very strict, almost Japan like, approach to the weather. If it is raining, drizzly, just rained, or looks like it might rain then the ride doesn't open. At several times in the day we would be allowed in to queue only to have the ride close on us and us sent away. But like a common cold we kept coming back in the hope that it would open up.

For a window of no more than twenty minutes the ride did eventually open and we were allowed on to ride. As we boarded the front row (fate more than planning) the rain started to come once more but fortunately we were allowed our go and the train did leave the station.

Not as tidy as the Japanese

The ride itself was really good. I'm not sure if that was due to a longer and therefore heavier train but the ride seemed more powerful than most inverted. The helix element particularly forceful, even in the front. A shame that we couldn't get a ride in the back.

I didn't think much of the animal show although the peeping tom at the back made me laugh.

Across from the main road behind the Tower of Error is another casino complex.

Can't say much of the entertainment in it though.

Gold Reef City is a beautiful park with some very above average and unique rides. Sure Tower of Terror is a bit of a headbanger but its the only ride like it, and unique rides are worth experiencing even if it is just once. The only niggle was their policy towards the rain, choosing not to run a ride in weather that we in the UK are more akin too. But park rules are there to be abided and whilst we couldn't see the logic in leaving rides closed because it stopped raining 15 minutes ago, we remained patient and did end up getting all the rides we wanted but if you're easily wound up by seeing parks do this you may want to bear this in mind if you ever intend visiting.

From the casino we were able to order a taxi to take us to the next location.

Emperors Casino

The final stop for us was to Emperors Casino, about 20 minutes from the hotel. It was home to an indoor Vekoma Junior Coaster. Note the past tense. Chatting to the staff we discovered that the indoor amusement park was removed 2 years ago to make way for an indoor multiplex. Ah well!

The casino itself looked quite nice, but the patrons were a little unruly. We got in the face of a queue jumping and obnoxious chinese man who was being rude to the staff and us because he wasn't being served quickly enough. This came to a head and an attempt to push him away led to accusations of having punched him and he went running to security. We had a quick chat with them and agreed that the best course of action was that we left the casino, and as we were on our way out we didn't have an issue with that.

Have you ever tried leaving a casino? We passed crazy chinese man 20 minutes later trying to find the exit.

Conclusion

So whilst the trip was a bit mental for the distance we were covering it actually turned out very worthwhile with us getting all the rides that were running. More importantly it became a revelation that travelling south over the Christmas holidays was an absolutely excellent idea and we're already planning trips for the same time of year in the next few years. I highly recommend doing this if people get down with the weather back home. Whilst I'm not a fan of the sun it certainly lifted my mood being out in it. Both of the big parks are must dos if you're planning on visiting South Africa with very good rides in both parks and unique rides in Gold Reef City.

Postscript: The one that got away!

Just prior to the trip I discovered a travelling showman who has a Schwarzkopf Silver Arrow coaster in his ride list. It was rumoured to be in Port Elizabeth whilst we were visiting and we had hoped to squeeze this into our already tight itinerary. As it happened we received contact from the owner the day before I flew out telling us that it only appears in August at a fair in another city so we dropped our last minute plans and now have a good reason to go back to South Africa to track this rare ride.

Plans for 2011

2010-12-04T14:17:00.002Z

Well one year down and another one looming. Here's what I've got planned.

Capital Cities
Cape Town
Lisbon
~~Kiev~~
~~Minsk~~
Belfast
Ankara

New Parks
Ratanga Junction, South Africa
V&A Waterfront, South Africa
Magic Company, South Africa
Gold Reef City, South Africa
Pretoria West Showgrounds, South Africa (travelling)
Chariots Entertainment Centre, South Africa
Kolmarden Djurpark, Sweden
Skara Sommarland, Sweden
Funcenter, Portugal
Isla Magica, Spain
Seville Fair, Spain
~~Kiev Zoo, Ukraine~~
~~Hidro Park, Ukraine~~
~~Gorky Park, Belarus~~
~~Cheluskintsev Park, Belarus~~
~~Dreamland, Belarus~~
Bayern Park, Germany
Freizeit-Land Geiselwind, Germany
Schloss Thurn, Germany
Freizeitpark Plohn, Germany
Belantis, Germany
Erlebniswelt Seilbahnen Thale, Germany
Potts Park, Germany
Schloss Beck Freizeitpark, Germany
Dusseldorf Fair, Germany (travelling)
Nurburgring, Germany
Walygator Parc, France
Schwaben Park, Germany
Genclik Parki, Turkey
Kecioren Park, Turkey
Basak Park, Turkey
Luna Park, Turkey
Goksu Park, Turkey
Demetevler Parki, Turkey
Ada Park, Turkey
Cevahir Mall, Turkey
Kucuk Ciftlik Park, Turkey
Bostanci Luna Park, Turkey

Coasters
Will be approximately 121

Updates
Kiev is hosting a football championships in 2012 so there's rumoured investment in a couple of new parks. Will hold fire on this trip til that's confirmed.

2010 - In Review...

2010-12-04T14:03:00.001Z

New capitals cities that I visited.
Bucharest
Warsaw
Beijing
Abu Dhabi

New parks that I visited.
Tineretului Park, Romania
Herastrau Park, Romania
Mitcham Fair, UK (travelling)
Clapham Common Fair, UK (travelling)
Slaskie Wesole Miasteczko, Poland (but only got to look, it was closed due to the leader's death)
Szczesliwice, Poland
Deadwood, NC
Morey's Piers, NJ
Waldameer, PA
Seabreeze, NY
Darien Lake, NY
Martin's Fantasy Island, Canada
Marineland Theme Park, Canada
Canada's Wonderland, Canada
Huangcun Park, China (but the only coaster was closed)
Beijing World Park, China
Aoyun Fuwa Paradise, China
Sun Park, China
Happy Valley Beijing, China
Beijing Shijingshian Amusement Park, China
Tianjin Zoological Gardens, China
Tianjin Water Park, China (but the 2 coasters were closed)
Long Rainbow Park, China (but the coaster had gone)
Nandaihe International Amusement Park, China
Lertao Ocean Park, China
Shanghai People's Park, China
Shanghai Century Park, China
Gongqing Senlin Park, China
Space City, China
Happy Valley Shanghai, China
Jin Jiang Action Park, China
Heping Park, China
Zhongshan Park, China
Suzhou Amusement Land, China
Suzhou Giant Wheel Park, China
China Dinosaur Park, China
Hongshan Zoo, China
Nanjing Pearl Spring Tourist Resort, China
FanataWild Adventure, China
Zheshan Park, China
Luxun Park, China
Shanghai Zoo, China
Palm Beach Resort, China
Shanghai Ocean Park, China (but the coaster was not running)
Mitcham Status Fair, UK (travelling)
Flamingo Park, UK
Brockwell Park, UK (travelling)
Fort Fun Amusement Park, UK
Harbour Park, UK
Clacton Pier, UK
Teignmouth Pier, UK
Sparkey's, UAE
Ferrari World, UAE
Fun City, UAE

New coasters ridden
I'm not going to list them all but there were 139 new ones!

Ferrari World Abu Dhabi

2010-11-18T23:21:00.006Z

My main reason to visit Abu Dhabi was to visit the newly opened Ferrari World Theme Park which after a downplayed opening at the end of October eventually opened properly for it's soft-launch on November 4th. My visit took place on the following weekend during the F1 Grand Prix event and festivities.

Rather weirdly the entrance to the park is not under Ferrari log on the south side of the building but via a walkway on the north side. Also in the Emirates the working day starts later than we in the West are used to. The park itself doesn't open until midday. So this not a park to get to too early. With a late opening comes a late closure and this park stays open until 10pm on weekdays and midnight on weekends, so night time riding is also possible here. In the initial entry hall there are a number of concession stands including a starbucks for those that need to star their day with a coffee. From there an escalator takes you up to the walkway that leads over the road and into the park proper.

Welcoming you on the walkway are a cacaphony of car engines and later in the day a couple of photographers to take your picture next to the brand logo. In the entrance hall the ticket booths and a guest reception are located down the right handside of the space, on the left is the exit gift shop. There is a locker area, which is perfect to those who wish to visit the park on the way to or from the airport. When I visited they weren't ready but for a 35 durams (£3) I was able to leave it at reception. During the soft opening some of the rides weren't open so the park had knocked a third off the entry price bringing the premium ticket down to the price of a normal entry. With the ticket you get a holder and lanyard, which has a different colour each day, you also get a very simply presented park map, which has a semi-hardback cover, putting it above the norm. Once you have the ticket you then enter the barriers and open them by touching your ticket against the gate wall, indicating that the ticket has an RFID chip in it somewhere. Whether customer behaviour is being tracked around the park isn't known but given there are no turnstiles in the park and it would be significant outlay just to get you through the gate I'm sure the technology is being used somehow. Would this be the first park to do this? The perks of the VIP ticket include access to the fastpath queue line that featured on pretty much every attraction and access to the VIP lounge.

Round the main hall to the left is the first of the attractions. Galleria Ferrari is a small showcase of about 10 Ferrari cars for you to photograph, but not climb over as some kids did; a security guard makes sure of that. Around the side of the room there are a small number of interactive touch screens showing some further information on the company and the cars.

The Racing Legends attraction uses the Spiderman dark ride technology but with the cars spinning on a single axis and no tipping movements. It's a dark ride taking you through the history of Ferrari racing successes including Nurburgring and Daytona amongst others. The sets consist of a mixture of large and small screens, props and lots of cars, including one that looked like it was supposed to follow you but didn't. One clever effect features a tunnel shaped projection screen that you move down simulating a race down a country road. It's not a thrilling ride at all but it does give a good back story to the Ferrari racing story.

Junior Training Camp is the childrens playground with a number of different play areas. In the first section the children are able to race remote controlled cars under the watchful eye of a member of staff who ensures the attraction isn't turned into a robot wars arena. Another section features a small number of toddler friendly vehicles for them to ride around in. Between those is some climbing apparatus. In one corner of the area there was a car that I thought the kids had ripped the bumper off, however I soon realised the car is designed to come apart and gives the children an opporunity to play pit crew; a nice idea! Next to this there's a windtunnel attraction that in one pod shows how wind tunnels help a car become performant. Having had the lesson you're then given the opporunity to make yourself streamlined by entering the second pod and having a fan blow the wind at you.

Formula Rossa is the signature attraction and the real reason for coming to the park. The 149mph Intamin rocket coaster has taken the top speed record away from the Americans overtaking Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. (I'm not considering Nurburgring Racer as it has yet to open) Overlooked however is the fact that this coaster has the sixth longest track too. As big as the park is there's no way this coaster would fit so with only the station under the main structure the track runs out into the surrounding area. Fortunately it's not all desert, the immediate area has had gravel and flowerbeds put down reducing the likelihood of sand being blown up into the track.

There's an observation balcony overlooking the launch track for those that want to watch; those that wish to ride descend to the lower floor beneath it. The station is functional with minimal theming, just some screens to show you how to prepare for ride and some Italian trancey techno music playing over the speaker system. The 16-seater cars have a bigger body than most coasters and do need to be climbed into. The restraints consist of standard Intamin lap straps, fortunately not as tight as the ones found on Megalites. In addition to the strap there's also a lap bar which will be pushed in firmly, not a ridiculous stapling but enough to ensure you're in there snugly. The park staff are taking the ride safety seriously but forunately letting the public have their say too. Being someone who wears glasses I was asked by more than one ride operator to remove them, but showing them a strap and telling them I was happy to ride with them gave no resistance and I was allowed to proceed. They got the balance just right; make the riders aware of the risks but let them have the final say. Something that other parks could learn from.

Riders in the front are asked to wear safety goggles, those with glasses don't need to. The station crew are also armed with a number of red jackets that those locals that were wearing the national dress of long flowing robes and headwear. The ride was being well run with single riders being called forward to fill the available seats however some uncertainty in the riders, a few with last minute nerves, and lots of issues with loose items being taken on board slowed the throughput down a little, but to be honest the crowds weren't big enough to stress people out and the excitement of impending rides and watching trains depart kept people excited.

My first go was in the back row as it was available for a walk-on. That felt fast but there was a strong feeling of being pulled along and not really accelerating, but the ride was certainly swift and very enjoyable. As there was no queue I ran around again and this time chose the front row, riding with an Australian Grand Prix Fan and this ride could be summed up in one word; insane!

The acceleration in the front is superb, as you pick up speed and you feel your face starting to pull back you get the feeling of Kingda Ka and Dragster all over again, but this one keeps on going beyond those rides both in speed and forces. Although the hill is braked and causing much debate in the coaster enthusiast community, its probably for the better as your face continues to be pulled back all the way to the bottom of the first drop and into the first sweeping bend. The hills are not particularly forceful and didn't really offer any major airtime and the turning transitions are taken much better than on I305, the last big Intamin speed coaster at Kings Dominion. Airtime is really only offered on the final camelbacks before the coaster hits the brakes. In the front my eyes were streaming for the first half of the ride and the sensation of having survived made the ride a true adrenalin rush, something that I find harder and harder to obtain as I ride more rides. Later rides in the day on a varied selection of seats showed that the hills in the middle of the circuit can offer airtime. On the left hand side just before the third hill the ride appears to come really close to the supports, adding a "whoa!" moment to the ride, so the best seat is front left. I was also quite fortunate to enjoy/endure a rollback where the car ceased accelerating and coasted up the first hill before gradually being rolled back into the station. With the car taken off and two cars sent empty, we were allowed back on for another go!

Perhaps not a surprise given the speed of the ride and what the acceleration does to most peoples' faces there is no onride photo stand but you can buy t-shirts and other souvenirs of the ride back in the main building at a little concession stand. I don't recall seeing the ride t-shirts in the exit shop so best purchase it here.

Later in the day I took a walk around the ride to try to take some photos, with variable success. With the aid of some sandy steps that had been left lying around I was able to get some OK ones of the launch, hitting the brakes and when I then got closer to the ride I was hit by a pair of goggles that flew off the ride.

So why did I like it? It's a proper coaster ride which most rockets aren't, I'm thinking the Stealths, Dragsters and Kingda Ka here. Whilst it's design primarily that of a speed coaster the design does still include some airtime, not a lot but it's there. It does the "Speed Coaster" bit properly obviously with the launch as fast as it is and long sweeping turns that are kept close to the ground to give that extra acceleration effect. Yes it slows down as soon as it hits the first hill but its still a fast ride beyond that. Secondly the transitions do not hurt or need to be learnt (this is where it's nearest rival I305 goes horribly wrong), this is partly due to the lack of overheads. I was never a fan of those horrible restraints that seemed to leave bars at neck height so that if a turn was taken too quickly my neck would take the blow. This ride doesn't put the cage around the rider at all and you have plenty of freedom to raise your arms and move around and just enjoy the ride. Finally I was experiencing the ride with the general public who were totally into the ride. Had I gone on with a lot of enthusiasts who all moaned that it didn't offer lots of airtime or wasn't as fast as another ride they do like then I'm sure I wouldn't have come away with as much of a good impression. Reading a lot of boards on this ride, a lot of the enthusiast community have already made their mind up that they don't like it before they've even experienced it, which is a shame.

Il Podio is Italian for "The podium" is a small restaurant themed around the staff restaurant at the Ferrari factory in Maranello. They sell a selection of international food including shawarma, skewered meat, strudels, italian ice cream and various fruit crumbles.

Ferrari Past & Present is a gift shop themed around a garage and offering a selection of branded merchandise, toys, remote controlled cars and rather weirdly a pick-and-mix toolkit.

Viaggio in Italia is a flying simulator ride of some kind, I would guess similar to the Soaring rides at the Disney parks. However I don't know for sure as this attraction wasn't ready for the soft-opening and closed on both days. Close by is a small coffee shop called "Espresso Rosso" that not surprisingly offering all those ridiculous named coffees that you're probably used to and that I detest. I can't say if they had tall skinny fluffy moccachoccchino or not. They do have some good gelato though.

Driving with the Champion had the longest queues, although shouldn't have done. A pre-show, in which only a dozen people were invited to at one time, gives the back story of a new employee to the Ferrari factory being overkeen and trying to impress his rather relaxed boss with a lot of new ideas only to be given an initiation of riding with an anonymous champion. The champion happened to be Fernando Alonso edited into the film in such a way that should circumstances change he can be easily replaced. The ride itself is on of those multi-seat simulator rides 2/3 of which were down, which would explain the long queues and sparse attendance in the pre-show. The movie itself is quite fun in a cheesy way with my favourite part being when the car has to weave through some cows that have strayed onto the road. There are water sprays for when the car hits the puddles etc. I enjoyed it!

Junior GT is a driving school area for the little ones to take their mini-ferraris around some small roads.

I almost missed the "Carousel Racing Future Stars" attraction the first day, lost in amongst the red cars of the rides around it. A multi-speed single level carousel featuring a selection of cars and bikes for the kids, small and large to ride in. I only ever saw it running once simply due to the lack of participants.

"Junior GP Pilota Racing" is a large race track set up for the kids to drive around. The track width is wide enough only for one car removing any competitive element. Because the track is lengthy and kids can't be trusted members of staff were walking around the track chaperoning the cars to ensure they were ok but in a non-obtrusive manner at all. I'm not sure how this would be policed at capacity.

The "Cinema Maranello" attraction is best described as Wacky Races meets the Stella commercials, featuring a 1920's country race with a collection of international stereotypes: "The Gentleman" from Britain, "Baron von something" from Germany etc... Of course we knew Italy would win, but I didn't expect him to get the girl too. A 200-seater cinema with plush red leather seats and a running time of around 15 minutes. Well shot and uniqe to the park but not a big crowd pleaser, a few of the locals walked out half way through. The shows here seemed to run every half hour up to 1930 so if you're staying late be aware of the early finish time of this one.

At the back of the park is the Scuderia Challenge attraction. This area is full of simulator rides of which there were 3 kinds. The back wall consists of 8 tri-screen simulators that race either F40s or F1 cars around a recreation of the Yas Marina F1 circuit (the big race track next door to the park). In the centre of them is a large screen showing external views of the leader for people to watch, when they weren't looking over the shoulders of the riders. With most of the riders not trained F1 drivers and who didn't appreciate the necessity of the brake pedal, most races ended up with a mass crash at the first corner. On my race I managed a respectable 3rd, it was the hairpin that got me! As the throughput is so slow on this you have to collect a ticket in advance, recommendation is to there early, when I got my ticket at 2.30 I had to come back at 5 to take part in my race.

The other simulators are much larger full-size replicas of the F1 car, complete with original wheel, and the F40, complete with various parts salvaged from a real one. Instead of 3 screens to fill your field of view these have large single concave screens wrapped around the vehicles. These simulators are much better but so much harder to ride and are the nearest you'll get to riding a real one probably. As there are only simulators the waiting time is longer, much longer in fact. To give you an idea my ticket collected at 2.30 had me coming back at 9.30 to ride. Because of the slow throughput and to dissuade the majority from riding, the big simulators require an upcharge of about £10. This was the one part of the park where people were complaining, clearly upset at the time they had to return back. To the park's defence though on purchasing the main entrance ticket to the park the staff do warn you of the delays and do tell you to head there immediately to get the ticket.

"Pit Stop Refreshments" is a small eaterie featuring American food for those who are less inclined to leave their western diet comfort zone. Close to this is the VIP lounge, which offers a quiet room, free snack food and free drink (fruit juices, fizzy drinks and water) for those that have paid for the privilege. I definitely got my moneys worth here returning time and time again to fill my tanks. There are also magazines on the park that you're allowed to take if you're looking for a souvenir. I don't recall any park having VIP areas, it's a nice touch if a tad elitist. I took this late in the day when the fruit juice was pretty popular.

"La Garra Pit Lane Show" is a show that runs towards the end of the day, featuring a mixture of stomp style miming and circus acts, a veritable "Cirque de PitLane" if you will. It's quite cheesy but some of the pit girl dancers were nice and there was a quite brilliant piece of LED baton twirling that created animations as they were swung around. If you have a fantasy that involves dancing pit-lane girls or tumbling mechanics then you'll enjoy this.

The "The Pit wall" attraction is a small area featuring recreations of the telemetry rooms and pit stops, and not much more to be honest. There's supposed to be pit stop challenge here where you get to change the wheels on the car against the clock but this wasn't open when I visited so I can't comment on how it is.

Bell Italia is an autopia style attraction that allows the riders to drive their cars (in as much as the guide rail will allow) around a scenic recreation of Italy. Proudly claiming that the scenery involves around 48,000 miniature trees it was a shame that some of the recreations were a little poor. Venice in particular featured the cathedral and tower on a flat square, and nothing else. Some of the other Italian landmarks I couldn't name, perhaps I need to get to Italy some more Popular with the kids this did pick up a small queue. I did take a little delight in one parent who chose to take the drivers seat upsetting the child next to him.

The park really missed a trick with the G-Force drop tower that is located in the centre of the park. It should have gone above the top of the building but doesn't because the roof dips at the centre. So whilst blasted up all you get to see is reflections on the glass panes. I really wanted this to blast you from an air-conditioned sanctuary of the station out into the desert heat offering a distant view before dropping you back, but it doesn't. In an attempt to keep the ride interesting passengers are kept in their seats for a second go. A real disappointment.

"V12 Enter the Engine" is the park's water ride themed around the internal workings of the Ferrari engine. A nice idea but I hope that what I experienced was not the finished ride as I came away a little disappointed here too. The station crew hand out ponchos to the kids and proper yellow rain coats for the adults; I have no idea why as you don't get that wet (perhaps if the boats were full it would be different). The Ferrari branded boats leave the station and enter a vertical lift system, which I didn't expect, before circling back down to station level through a mixture of themed sets and drops. The screen before the big drop at the end, which was supposed to distract you, was not working taking away the element of surprise. Screams from the boat in front also gave the game away. I'm hoping what I rode was just the soft-opening version of the ride and that there's more to come. If anything the rain coats will lead to some interesting photos.

The cuisine at the Rosticerra Modena restaurant is primarily of the local Arabian kind. I had a lamb kebab from here, which was almost too much for me to eat with 4 very decent sized pieces of meat, flatbreads, rice and some pickled salad (including bizarrely a pickled carrot). I think I made a really good choice choosing to eat here! They also offer carved meat, rotisserie, mezzehs and some local pizza combinations. There's also a lounge area above it from which you can look out over the Bell Italia ride. I stumbled into it thinking it was the VIP lounge area mentioned earlier but it wasn't. The place was quite swish so I have a suspicion I wasn't supposed to be there.

"Made in Maranello" is the second dark ride to use the Spiderman ride concept again using only single-axis rotation. This ride, which was closed on the first day but open on the second, is themed around the factory that builds the Ferrari cars and features a mixture of effects, screens and theming. The nearest comparison I think is the Test Track attraction at Epcot but without the test track at the end. There were a couple of nice touches such as the UV wire-frame car models over head giving the appearance of you starting the attraction in a CAD application. Towards the end a tipping molten metal bucket in the foundry set gives the one scare in the attraction but again I have a feeling that the ride was a partial experience most notably in the wind tunnel room where nothing happened.

"Fiorano GT Challenge" is the other coaster attraction featuring a pair of three Ferrari Spiders that dual in the desert outside of the park. Built by ~~Premier~~ Maurer Sohne (thanks Jeremy) using the same ride system in the Italian Job attractions the cars are dropped out of the station and into the first of four LIM launch sections that ensure the cars are kept moving through the twisty circuit. The cars must cross over at least a dozen times through the duration of the circuit making it perhaps the most dueling coasters out there. There is no viewing platform for this ride unfortunately and the only way to watch it is through some fairly filthy windows, unless of course you fancy a walk outside the park in the desert heat. The ride itself is a lot of fun, the hills aren't huge and the launches are nowhere near as fast as the coaster on the other side of the building, but the dueling aspect makes this ride a lot of fun indeed and a ride I was happy to ride over and over again, helped again by the small queues that allowed me to quickly rejoin. The ride operators here were very good trying their best to get some rider participation before the cars were despatched and they were more than happy to allow re-rides as long there was nobody queueing. The desert friendly goggles are not mandatory on this ride, you could choose to wear them if you wished. Like the Rossa ride, those riders in the traditional garb were asked to wear red jackets. The Ferrari Spider car trains are very cool too, just a shame they don't have the doors that the Italian Job minis used to have. This ride is also barely lit in the dark, which is a shame. If they could get the headlights working on the cars then I think that would add a really nice touch.

The last of the 3 spiderman dark rides is called "Speed of Magic" and this is the one that features the full 6-axis car and the 3D glasses. The backstory to this one features a young boy who unable to complete a video game is offered the keys to his dad's Ferrari to help him (yep! I know). The video game opponent named Nello takes the opportunity to escape into the real world and makes off with the keys, whilst Max is fumbling around for something under the bed. Realising what has happened Max challenges Nello to a race and this then leads you into the station for the ride itself. Featuring a number of screens and scenes between them this doesn't come close to Spiderman at all and is barely better than the poor equivalent ride at La Qua. The screens, that you spend quite a bit of time in front of, or the projection lenses were filthy and really spoiled the quality of what was being projected. I didn't feel the 3D perhaps for the same reason. There's no clever segues between the screens and the sets that divide them, the majority just have you spinning between them. The racing takes you through some cliched sets including a mountain, snow, lava, and rather peculiarly for a chase attraction, an underwater sequence (which does feature a nice Ferrari coloured Manta Ray, the best bit of the whole ride IMO), the finale takes place on a futuristic race track that looks like a large Wipeout game. Again I don't know if I got the full ride; disappointingly I suspect I did. A shame, but perhaps I'm just been spoiled by having ridden Spiderman. The majority of cars returning to the station featured a lot of people clapping and cheering who obviously found the ride better than I did.

Mamma Rossella is an eaterie inspired by a family restaurant close to the Ferrari factory in Italy, this is the park's Italian restaurant featuring pasta, parma ham and pizza dishes. I didn't eat here but there was a fair number of locals who chose to do so. Across from Mama's is Ristorante Cavallino which is the posh restaurant that looked a lot more formal than all the other places to eat. Perhaps too intimidating for most it was the least busy.

What I liked about the park

By far the best aspect of the park for me was the staff who should be commended for excellent customer service and friendliness attitude to the visitors. They seem to have a diverse workforce, I spoke to people from the Phillipines, China, Japan and Africa. The Brits and Arabs seemed to be in the more senior position and removed from the front-line a bit. It's always a good sign when you're remembered from the day before although a clear sign that the park isn't busy...or perhaps it was just that I hadn't shaved for the week leading into the trip and my dishevelled appearance helped me to stand out.
The park is spotless. Although it's new there's a noticeable clean up crew keeping it that way, and in the city that has the lowest crime rate there are no signs of vandalism to the rides or attractions bar some very excitable kids who chose to climb around the cars and jumped a queue, admittedly a queue that consisted of me and one other. A team of polishers also ensured the cars on display were kept in the best condition.
With the exception of the shot tower, none of the rides can be found in any other park, which makes it a destination for those who are looking for unique attractions.
But in terms of rides, Formula Rossa is amazing and to most will be the biggest reason to visit the park. Being the record breaker that it is it had attracted a small crowd from the Grand Prix and was the only ride to advertise a queue waiting time, in this case only 30 minutes.

What I didn't like about the park

It's incomplete, but then I was visiting during the soft launch, which was reflected in the reduction in the ticket. Rather strangely for a soft-launch at no point was I asked what I thought. It would have been a perfect opportunity to realise what else could be done. It would have been nice to also know what was missing from the rides that were open, my suspicion is that there's more to come for the majority of the rides but not being informed leaves me with an incomplete view and I, like most people would come away with the impression that we saw all there was.
Some parts of the park were a bit spartan, particularly the entrance to the dueling coasters which features a very large corridor with very little going on in it. Some lights standing alone gave a clue that perhaps some more display cars were yet to arrive for show.
You have to go out of the park to photograph the coasters and the side entrances were closed meaning you walk all the way out and back to the only entrance again. It would be great to be able to walk out amongst the Rossa and Fiorano tracks too, a particular common complaint of those interested in photography.
The park opens at midday and the orientation of the park means that the sun goes down behind the first drop of the Formula Rossa ride, which killed the photos that I was taking there. Theres a carpark near to the coaster too that would offer an excellent photo opportunity if it wasn't for the fact that from that angle the car travels away from you.
The biggest issue the park has to address, and which I think it could do very quickly is to inform the city's taxi drivers how to get to the park. The park is being advertised quite heavily in hotels featuring on city park maps etc but neither taxi driver I used knew of it and were inadvertantly taking me to the Grand Prix despite signs in the area indicating the way to go.

A final pic as I left the park.

and some video to finish up with.

China 2010

2010-09-02T23:40:00.001+01:00

My write up of my summer trip to China can now be found over on the left.

Set aside a weekend and enjoy :D

SID Chip keyboard

2010-08-15T17:57:00.004+01:00

Geekfest...

My US/Canada trip is up

2010-07-26T23:30:00.001+01:00

In July I did this year's big ECC trip to the US and Canada.

You can read all about it by clicking the link over on the left or this link here

Gnarcade

2010-07-13T22:37:00.011+01:00

Rapping Rodents

2010-06-02T23:50:00.001+01:00

Elephant Parade 2010 part 2

2010-05-30T15:27:00.003+01:00

Well after 2 intense weekends and three mini walks I've finally managed to photograph all 258 elephants in this year's parade. The final one had been eluding me for a number of weeks being late to appear and then hidden in a sold-out Chelsea flower show.

I also discovered a bonus one that isn't included in the list, acting as a temporary replacement to one that must have been off undergoing some maintenance.

So that's all 259 in the bag.

Photos are here

The Sistine Chapel

2010-05-28T19:43:00.002+01:00

If you've ever visited this you'll probably find it a little anti-climatic for the following reasons.

You're not allowed to take photos
Hypocritically the room is full of tourists

So someone has gone to the trouble of putting in a 360 shot you can interact with on your own.

Link

Elephant Parade 2010

2010-05-09T20:26:00.003+01:00

Well the elephants are in town with just over 250 of them in town.
I spent most of Saturday finding as many as I could.
You can see them on flickr

Google Earth Plug In

2010-05-04T21:49:00.007+01:00

Just having a quick play with the Google Earth Plugin

This is my theme park project. Unfortunately iframes don't work very well.

and this is my banksy project. This works a little bit better.

Cheeky advert

2010-04-27T07:40:00.000+01:00

Roa hits East London

2010-04-24T18:29:00.003+01:00

Pure Evil galleries are currently hosting a Roa exhibition. He's the guy that's associated with large brush style animal pieces. I first spotted his work earlier in the year with a rabbit that made great used of a cantilever garage door to show two different views depending on how you look at it.

Along with the gallery he's also put a number of pieces up around the Hackney and Brick Lane area. I managed to find all but 2 of them, which couldn't be seen as they're on shop shutters and the shops were open for trade today. I'll need to go back to Brick Lane either first thing in the morning or at night.

My photos are here

Interesting quote

2010-04-20T00:00:00.002+01:00

Ignoring the fact there's a missing letter, who might have said the above?
Click for answer.

Trip to Poland

2010-04-13T22:57:00.004+01:00

This weekend I went to Poland taking in Katowice, Chorzow, Auschwitz, Berkinau, Krakow and Poland . The trip had been planned for sometime and it was just very bad luck that whilst there the country's President died in a plane accident and the city went into a state of mourning meaning lots of places closed and I didn't get to do everything I wanted to. I also had an issue with the pre-ordered train tickets and got attacked by a dog.

Photos are on flickr

and I will be going back to Katowice and Krakow and probably visiting Lodz and Gdansk.

World Clock

2010-03-13T22:25:00.001Z

Some quite sobering stats on this...

World Clock

Tiesto @ Brixton

2010-03-12T22:09:00.002Z

Now the 6th time I've seen "The Worlds Greatest DJ" play and whilst not his best set the night was still a good one with me dancing from start to finish.

Rather surprisingly he chose to not play some of his older tracks (which get the better crowd response). He did however play a lot of tracks from the new album which being collaboration heavy led to poor progression in his set.

As ever lots of people chose to film the event on their cameras and iphones and post onto youtube meaning I didn't have to.

Cyriak's "Cycles"

2010-03-10T19:35:00.002Z

How bonkers is that?

Check out planes over Europe

2010-03-03T22:21:00.001Z

Not sure how long this will be around, what with our paranoid fear of another 9/11, but its quite an interesting website.

Virtual Radar

Wykahmix #5 - Happy

2010-02-28T21:02:00.002Z

My 5th mix which I started in January and didn't really complete til February 2010.
Based on feedback I've tried to tighten up the progression but I know I can still improve in that area.

Trancey stuff upfront, a bit of tech in the middle with some cheesy remixes, and finishing with some epic trance towards the end...enough to make me "happy"

Tracklisting
1. Piovere - Sindre Eide - Enhanced
2. Always - Simon Patterson - Reset
3. Borealis - DJ Eco - Infrasonic
4. Tuvan - Gaia - Armada
5. Montego Bay - Ingsha - Armada
6. Mainstage - W&W - Captivating Sounds
7. Papillon (Tiesto Remix) - Editors - PIAS Recordings
8. Earthquake (Ali Wilson Tekelec Remix) - Little Boots - White Label
9. Perfect - Smart Apes vs Anna Lee - Emphase
10. Above the Clouds - Fast Distance & Dimension - Magic Island
11. Healesville Sanctuary (Signum Mix) - Roger Shah & Signum - Magic Island
12. Don't Give a Fuck (Vocal Mix) - Stoneface & Terminal - Euphonic

Wykahmix #5 - Happy by wykah

Graffiti Walk Feb 2010

2010-02-28T20:31:00.002Z

I was on the hunt for a rabbit piece by Roa, which a friend had seen in a magazine and I recognised the location immediately. Along the way I found plenty more graffiti which I've uploaded to flickr here.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010-02-28T20:21:00.003Z

This is Banksy's new movie and it's a very amusing documentary of the street art movement. Following Thierry Guetta, a rather odd French man with a penchant for filming everything he does the movie tells the tale of how he got in on the scene and began filming a number of artists who wouldn't normally want to be seen on camera.

It's not all about Banksy, he does feature and is quite amusing but there are clips of his LA show, his Disney invasion and some of his other work. It also features Invader and Obey amongst others.

The title of the film doesn't seem to work, the original title was "Selling Sh*t to C*nts" which is a lot better.

The movie is out in the middle of March but there are some preview shows in a unique location. A custom built cinema under the arches beneath Waterloo station entered in the graffiti bombed Leake St.

My photos can be seen on flickr here.

Jerry Sadowitz @ Leicester Square Theatre

2010-01-30T23:09:00.002Z

Saw Jerry Sadowitz tonight at one of his last of a run of shows in Leicester Square. He was totally offensive but hilarious to boot. If you're offended by jokes about human misfortune e.g. the Haitian earthquake then you don't want to be here.

Like Stewart Lee a few weeks ago its nice to see some of the genuinely funny comedians who don't pander to the PC brigade. Stewart managed to get a BBC series last year. I doubt we'd ever get another one from Jerry (anyone else remember The Pall Bearers Review?). He's still way too wrong for TV, yet right to see live; its just a shame he doesn't play out more often.

Oh and he's a brilliant magician too, starting the show by making a piranha tank appear from nowhere (why bother with rabbits and doves) and ending by producing a suited Royal Flush chosen by the audience using sleight-of-various-body-parts.

Oh, and if you're Amanda Holden, don't be there for the start of the show :D

Bucharest

2010-01-23T18:56:00.002Z

January 2010 saw me taking a long weekend to visit Bucharest in Romania. This was my 30th capital city (if you include San Marino and Vatican City) and as most of Western Europe has now been done it means longer flights and longer breaks to make the most of my time in Eastern Europe.

The city had a major public uprising in December 1989 where the Dictator Nicoleau Ceacescu was killed and became part of the EU a few years ago. So to the tourist it offers an interesting mix of West and East.

The view from the Intercontinental Hotel, which for a long time was the only hotel in the city.

This is Ceacescu's Palace which is the second biggest building in the world (after The Pentagon). It is an absolutely immense structure and an unwelcome reminder of his reign. He levelled more than 10% of the city to build this so its not too much of a surprise that its not well liked.

Aside from the Palace the city is home to some amazing architecture such as this building which is now home to a bank.

Bucharest is known as the Paris of the East and with its own Arc d'Triumph you can see why. There is a Champs Elysee equivalent leading up to the palace but there is no Eiffel Tower here.

For the tourist my favourite attraction was probably the Village Museum, which consists of a whole load of buildings relocated from around Romania into a single place. There's a great mix of stunning buildings such as this wooden church.

Another view of my hotel.

On the final day a blizzard came in and having seen London fail to cope with theirs it was a great surprise to see everything running here.

Be very careful of the taxi drivers that meet you at the airport. They are crooks! I managed to get past several and went to the official taxi booth but was met by a man who had the correct ID but even he managed to charge me five times the cost of the journey. For those that are going for the first say "no" to everyone until your sat in one of the fly taxi cabs that queue up outside the station. The correct fare is around 30-40 lei. If it helps remember that the official drivers won't come into the airport. Once you're in the city you're still exposed to crooks who paint their taxis to look like official ones. Your best bet there is to use the hotels to phone for one.

I had planned to travel to Bran Castle and the Peles Castle on the final day figuring seeing them covered in snow would make for some great photos but made a rather fundamental mistake in doing so on the day they were closed to the public. Ah well it does give me an excuse to use Bucharest as a stop over when my capital city hunt takes me further east.

The full set of photos are over on flickr.

The Elephants are Coming

2010-01-23T18:50:00.002Z

We've had cows in the past and I've also been to cities that have featured bears but now it looks like this Summer the Elephant Parade is going to be hitting London. I love this sort of thing, I just hope I don't feel the urge to try to find all of them :)

Potato Salad

2010-01-07T21:42:00.002Z

Stick with it. It gets weirder and weirder.

Banksy vs Robbo

2010-01-03T18:43:00.004Z

First there was a Robbo piece on the Regents Canal. It remained there for 20+ years.

Then Banksy came along and made it look like this. This upset some of the Robbo camp.

Who got their own back by doing this :D

The second and third images are mine, the first comes courtesy of Citrus and his flickr page can be found here.

2009 in Review

2010-01-01T20:11:00.003Z

A quick summary of where I managed to visit in 2009.

New Capitals

Athens

Ljubljana

San Marino

Seoul

Parks visited

Ireland

Funderland (temporary)

Greece

Allou Fun Park

International Luna Park

Ta Aidonakia Luna Park

Slovenia

Poletno Sankanje Straza

Italy

Movieland

Latemar

Meran 2000

Gardaland

Mirabilandia

Fiabilandia

Zoosafari Fasanolandia

Miragica

South Korea

Childrens Grand Park

Lotte World

Seoul Land

Doocoland

Everland

Kumdoriland

O-World

Suseong Land

Woobang Towerland

Gyeongju World

Tongdo Fantasia

Japan

Uminonakamichi Seaside Park

Kashiikaen

Dazaifu Yuenchi

Mitsui Greenland

Harmonyland

Kijima Amusement Park

Space World

Universal Studios Japan

Nagashima Spa Land

Japan Monkey Park

Fuji-Q

Sega Joypolis

Aqua Stadium

Tobu Zoo

Toshimaen

Tokyo Disneysea

Teine Olympia

Maruyama Kidland

Rusutsu Resort

Hokkaido Greenland

Bayside Pleasure Park

Botton's Pleasure Beach

Fantasy Island

Flamingoland

Thorpe Park

Tulse Hill Park (temporary)

Winter Wonderland (temporary)

Neverland (temporary)

and totally tempting fate, this is what's on the cards for 2010

New capital cities

Bucharest

Warsaw

Beijing

Belfast

Ankara

Parks Visiting

Romania

Tineretului Park

Herastrau Park

Netherlands

Efteling

Belgium

Plopsaland

Poland

Luna Park Krakow

Sankodrom

Slaskie Wesole Miasteczko

Szczesliwice

USA

Carowinds

Freestyle Movie Park

Busch Gardens Europe

Kings Dominion

Six Flags America

Morey's Piers

Six Flags Great Adventure

Hersheypark

Knoebels

Waldameer Park

Seabreeze

Darien Lake

Marineland Theme Park

Canadas Wonderland

China

Beijing Carnival

Sun Park

Happy Valley Beijing

Beijing Amusement Park

Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park

Long Rainbow Park

Tianjin Water Park

Tianjin Zoological Gardens

Lertao Ocean Park

Nadaihe International Amusement Centre

Palm Beach Resort

Sun Sea Sand Water Park

Gongqing Senlin Park

Jin Jiang Action Park

Shanghai People's Park

Space City

Suzhou Giant Wheel Park

Suzhou Amusement Land

Hongshan Zoo

Nanjing Pearl Spring Tourist and Holiday Resort

Xuanwuhu Park

Fantawild Adventure

Zheshan Park

Happy Valley Shanghai

Turkey

Genclik Parki

Demetevler Luna Park

Altin Park

Basak Park

Luna Park

Goksu Park

Bostanci Luna Park

Cevahir Mall

Alton Towers

Banksy hits Camden

2009-12-23T22:31:00.002Z

4 new pieces all unveiled over this weekend. Quite easy to find along the Regents canal once you head off in the right direction, that is.

The decorator one seems to have upset some of the graffiti fraternity though. It appears he's gone over a very old piece that had been there for 20+ years, even though others had scrawled over it in that time.

Soulwaxmas

2009-12-23T21:56:00.003Z

At the start of December a few friends and I had our annual concert thing and having seen Chemicals and Fatboy Slim in previous years it was the time of Soulwax and 2ManyDjs.

Warmup in a very empty venue was Gyratory Sound System. A sort of weird brass band trio arrangement where the trumpet seemed to get smaller as the set went on.

Next up was someone called Micky Moonlight. He was really really bad! His music was alright but as soon as he tried to mix the tracks together disaster ensued. Perhaps it was nerves but he'd have had a better response if he played the tracks one after another. I guess he wasn't that popular as I can't find any clips on youtube. People must have prefered to save the memory cards for later.

Up next was Soulwax who played a really good, if short, set. The 50 minutes or so were really good with a quite disorientating light show. The final track which seemed to be jive-bunny mix of old skool anthems went down particularly well.

Errol Alkan was up next. He was really good too! Friends are into his stuff and I hadn't really given him a chance but he did a great job getting us ready for the main event. Not sure why all the people were allowed on the stage though, none of them could dance.

2ManyDJs were up next and they were superb. Not much to look at when they play but some great visuals to go along with the mashups they were playing. A simple trick of taking the single artwork and animating it slightly in time to the music. Big tunes of the night were the MGMT tune that every DJ has been remixing this year (Kids, I think its called) and Prodigy's Out Of Space (can never go wrong with that).

But there were loads of other good tunes too. It's definitely the first set that's had me dancing to Sparks, Can, Beatles, Beethoven, amongst others.

I guess they must have impressed everyone in the Academy as even those filming it on their phones were jumping up and down, hence the poor footage.

But they do have lots of videos, used as visuals, on their youtube page.

Arturo Brachetti

2009-12-19T23:18:00.002Z

Quick change artist Arturo has a show at the Garrick Theatre until January and its mind-blowing. I love trying to figure out how magic is done but this guy was too quick to figure it out. He must have gone through 100 costume changes during his show.

What Darth Vader might have sounded like

2009-12-14T19:49:00.000Z

Very clever projection

2009-12-09T21:18:00.001Z

Rather clever! The building is in Hamburg.

Perhaps the best commercial ever...

2009-12-07T14:46:00.001Z

I think Sony's bouncy balls has been beaten

Malcolm's Page

Plans for 2012

2011 Year in Review

European Coaster Trip

DJ Cheeba

Smash TV

Sweden Tour

Rainbow Magicland

Seville

Lisbon

More stupid exam answers

New way of reading the site

30 day music challenge

South Africa

Plans for 2011

2010 - In Review...

Ferrari World Abu Dhabi

China 2010

SID Chip keyboard

My US/Canada trip is up

Gnarcade

Rapping Rodents

Elephant Parade 2010 part 2

The Sistine Chapel

Elephant Parade 2010

Google Earth Plug In

Cheeky advert

Roa hits East London

Interesting quote

Trip to Poland

World Clock

Tiesto @ Brixton

Cyriak's "Cycles"

Check out planes over Europe

Wykahmix #5 - Happy

Graffiti Walk Feb 2010

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Jerry Sadowitz @ Leicester Square Theatre

Bucharest

The Elephants are Coming

Potato Salad

Banksy vs Robbo

2009 in Review

Banksy hits Camden

Soulwaxmas

Arturo Brachetti

What Darth Vader might have sounded like

Very clever projection

Perhaps the best commercial ever...